The emblematic British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965), painter and writer in his spare time, found Marrakech a place of “
captivating
”
inspiration
.
The most famous of his paintings painted in Morocco will be auctioned on Monday at Christie's in London.
Read also: How Winston Became Churchill
Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque (La tour de la mosquée Koutoubia
), a picture painted on the occasion of an official visit during World War II, is fueling speculation, with estimates ranging from 1.7 to 2.8 million euros, according to the Christie's website.
The oil on canvas offered for sale by American actress Angelina Jolie is considered "
to be Sir Winston Churchill's most important painting
" because of its "
interweaving in the history of the twentieth century
", writes the historian of British art Barry Phipps in the catalog.
The Conservative leader started painting late, when he was 40 years old.
Whoever liked to flee political storms and the grayness of London had discovered the light of the ocher city of Marrakech in the 1930s, at the time of the French protectorate, and made a total of six trips there in 23 years.
"
Here, in these vast palm groves emerging from the desert, the traveler can be sure of eternal sunshine and contemplate with incessant satisfaction the majestic and snow-covered panorama of the Atlas Mountains
", he wrote in 1936 in the British newspaper
Daily Mail
.
A passion for the Atlas
The political monster liked to get lost in the maze of streets of the old town, go on a picnic in the Ourika valley, on the heights of Marrakech, and set up his easel on the balconies of the grand hotel La Mamounia or the villa Taylor - which will become a landmark of the European jet-set in the 1970s. It is from this villa that he painted the Koutoubia mosque, after the historic Anfa conference, organized in January 1943 in Casablanca with the president American Franklin Roosevelt and the leader of the Free French Forces, General de Gaulle, and in the presence of Sultan Morocco, to prepare the strategy of the Allies.
Read also: The Moroccan adventure in a sidecar
A legend reported by his entourage has it that at the time he said to Roosevelt: "
you cannot go all this way in North Africa without seeing Marrakech (...) I must be with you when you see the sunset. sun on the Atlas Mountains
”.
Now owned by the Moroccan royal family, the Villa Taylor can no longer be visited.
The place offers "
an exceptional view of the medina, on the Bab Doukkala side, to the Koutoubia mosque and in the background the High Atlas covered with snow
", according to Abderrazzak Benchaâbane, one of the botanists of the famous "
Majorelle garden
" in Marrakech.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill watching the sunset over the snows of the Atlas from a tower in Marrakech.
The two men rested there for two days in January 1943, after the Casablanca conference.
Leemage / Everett / Bridgeman pictures
A period press photograph shows Roosevelt and Churchill together admiring the sunset over the panorama that will inspire the painting.
The simple and unadorned landscape depicted there represents the minaret, symbol of power of the Almohad dynasty (12th century), embraced by the ramparts of the ancient city and leaning against the snow-capped mountains.
The British Prime Minister offered his Marrakech painting to his American counterpart and friend.
Sold by one of Roosevelt's sons in the 1950s, the painting changed hands several times, before landing in 2011 in the collection of Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
From Churchill's first visit to Morocco, in 1935, there has remained another painting,
Scene in Marrakech
, also up for auction at Christie's in early March.
Estimated between 340,000 to 578,000 euros, this other painting represents a detail of the palm grove at the foot of the Atlas.
Read also: In Marrakech, La Mamounia unveils its new finery
At the time, the then MP stayed at the La Mamounia hotel, where he painted seven canvases and worked on a biography of his ancestor, General Marlborough, after Celia Sandys, one of his granddaughters who had undertaken in 2002 a memorial trip to Morocco.
Inexhaustible on La Mamounia, Churchill wrote in a letter to his wife Clémentine to appreciate the “
truly remarkable panorama
” from his room.
“
He used to go from balcony to balcony to watch for the light, as if to better capture the colors and reproduce them on his canvases,
” assures Meryem Mikou in charge of communications for the palace.
During its successive renovations, the luxury hotel has lost all trace of this illustrious passage, even if a suite and a bar still bear its name.
