Admit it, art snobs: Winston Churchill was a surprisingly decent painter

Alastair Sooke | MSN | 20th May 2026

Some readers will wonder if Churchill has sufficient artistic cred to grace the pages of this newsletter. Well, the writer is emphatic that “on occasion he was surprisingly decent”, especially his landscapes of the Atlas mountains and of Marrakech. Admittedly he did not have the “blazing audacity” of Matisse but “occasionally a painting by him really comes together”. Comments by the curator (here) appear to indicate the show was not her idea.