The Wallace Collection

29/05/2026

☀️ How are you cooling off in this heat?

As London basks in rising summer temperatures, our museum offers a refreshing refuge in the heart of the city.

We wouldn't mind dining al fresco with this 16th century wine cooler on our table, to keep our drinks chilled in spectacular style.

This monumental wine cooler features the personal emblem of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany; a turtle carrying a mast on its back, a symbol of his motto festina lente ('hasten slowly').

The inscription on its base indicates that it was made in Flaminio Fontana’s maiolica workshop in Urbino.

The cooler was designed to keep wine chilled with ice, snow or cold water during lavish Renaissance banquets.

Covered in fantastical white-ground grotesques, vigorously sculpted sea monsters and a dramatic Roman naval battle scene, this extraordinary object transforms a dining accessory into a theatrical work of art.

It will form part of our free display - Cosimo I de’ Medici: Art and Dynasty - opening on 18 November. In the meantime, you can marvel at this wine cooler and other maiolica objects in our Smoking Room and Armouries Corridor.

Wine Cooler, Workshop of Flaminio Fontana, 1574

29/05/2026

✨LAST CHANCE TO BOOK✨

🎨 Online course: Winston Churchill and Modern Painting

How is Churchill’s painting connected to French Impressionism and avant-garde art? Join experts Dr Kathy McLaughlan and Dr Matthew Morgan in this online course and explore the key artists and practices that shaped Churchill’s artistic development.

You'll begin with late 18th- and early 19th-century French painters committed to working en plein air (outdoors) and discover how figures including Camille Corot revitalised landscape painting.

You'll also examine the influence of avant-garde artists Monet, John Lavery and Walter Sickert.

Join online from anywhere!

📅 Three-week online course: Wednesdays 3, 10 and 17 June
🕰️ 18.00–20.00 BST
💻 Online (Zoom)
👉 Book now: https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/winston-churchill-and-modern-painting/

29/05/2026

A new exhibition at the Wallace Collection showcases Churchill’s artworks, which he used both as a balm and as a tool of soft power

28/05/2026

Sign up to our newsletter for a world of art direct to your inbox: www.wallacecollection.org/newsletter/

Subscribers receive 25% off tickets to the Treasure House Fair in the next newsletter. Book your tickets here: https://treasurehousefair.artsvp.com/6f1ec3?link=email

25/05/2026

☀ What's on in June: Our major new exhibition, 'Winston Churchill: The Painter', has opened its doors, plus a marvellous away of talks and courses. Come and explore more with us!

💌 Sign up to our newsletter for a world of art straight to your inbox https://www.wallacecollection.org/newsletter/

📅 Event listings:
- Winston Churchill and Modern Painting
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/winston-churchill-and-modern-painting/

- Cher Maître: The Art of William Nicholson
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/cher-ma%C3%AEtre-the-art-of-william-nicholson/

- Library and Archive Tour: Hidden Treasures
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/library-and-archive-tour-hidden-treasures/

- Reimagining Still Life
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/reimagining-still-life/

- Winston Churchill: A Passion for Painting
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/winston-churchill-a-passion-for-painting/

- Winston Churchill: The Modern Painter
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/winston-churchill-the-modern-painter/

- Churchill's Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm
https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/churchills-citadel-chartwell-and-the-gatherings/

25/05/2026

View the exhibit that EVERYONE is talking about -- A ONCE IN A LIFETIME EVENT -- TICKETS ARE ALMOST SOLD OUT!

Join us June 9 for an extraordinary evening at The Wallace Collection celebrating Winston Churchill not as wartime leader, but as artist.

The International Churchill Society invites you to join us at a private event to enjoy and celebrate the Wallace Collection's exhibit, Winston Churchill: The Painter.

Guests will gather for an elegant cocktail reception featuring Pol Roger champagne—Churchill’s favorite—before enjoying an exclusive, after-hours access to the exhibition. This intimate experience offers rare access to Churchill’s paintings in the remarkable setting.

The evening will include special remarks from distinguished speakers, thoughtful reflections on Churchill’s artistic legacy, and ample opportunity to connect with fellow patrons in a convivial and historic atmosphere.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience—refined, engaging, and distinctly Churchillian.

Space is strictly limited to preserve the private nature of the evening. Early reservations are strongly encouraged.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/winston-churchill-the-painter-the-wallace-collection-special-event-tickets-1984339658335?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

22/05/2026

★★★★ The Times

'A magnificent accomplishment'
The Guardian

'This will profusely elate your mood'
The American

Winston Churchill: The Painter opens tomorrow. See the spectacular show that everyone is talking about, and rediscover the statesman and public leader through his art.

Bringing together more than 50 works, around half from private collections and rarely seen in public before, our exhibition reveals Churchill as a prolific and talented painter.

Journey to the places Churchill loved to paint – sunlit Mediterranean coasts under azure skies, the creamy yellows and blues of Moroccan valleys and horizons, and dappled garden vistas and lamplit tablescapes at his beloved home, Chartwell.

See the twisted paint tubes and paint-splattered easel Churchill carried on his travels, following the light to sun-drenched locations. It was at his easel - secretary, security guard and valet a stone’s throw away - where Churchill found peace, inner strength and renewal, paintbrush in hand.

Experience the ‘overpowering joy’ and book your tickets now to be among the first to see this landmark exhibition.

Book now: https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/winston-churchill-the-painter/

Winston Churchill: The Painter
Opens Saturday 23 May

📷️Sir Winston Churchill in his painting studio at Chartwell, 1945 Credit: Hans Wild/The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
🎨Sir Winston Churchill, The Lake at Blenheim c. 1926-29, Oil on canvas. Private Collection
🎨Sir Winston Churchill, The Marlborough Tapestries at Blenheim. Private Collection
🎨Sir Winston Churchill, The Tower of Koutoubia Mosque, Private Collection, Image courtesy Churchill Heritage Ltd
🎨Sir Winston Churchill, The Garden of the Mamounia Hotel, Marrakech. Image courtesy Churchill Heritage Ltd
🎨Sir Winston Churchill, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat port, Private Collection. © Churchill Heritage Ltd
🎨Sir Winston Churchill, “Beach at Walmer,” c. 1938. Oil on canvas. America's National Churchill Museum at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri. © Churchill Heritage Ltd

20/05/2026

★★★★
The Times

'In every room of this charming show' says The Times and The Sunday Times Chief Art Critic Laura Freeman, you 'share Churchill's pleasure and release.'

🎨 Come and share the joy. Our must-see show opens on Saturday 23 May.

Book your tickets now: https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/winston-churchill-the-painter/

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/art/article/winston-churchill-the-painter-review-im-not-snobby-about-the-pms-hobby-jsp25qtf2

A new exhibition at the Wallace Collection in London showcases the wartime prime minister’s passion for his art. You’d be glad to have them on your wall

19/05/2026

✨ Our Director Dr Xavier Bray will be live on BBC Radio 4's ‘Front Row’ programme this evening discussing our landmark exhibition, ‘Winston Churchill: The Painter’, which opens on Saturday 23 May.

With Property Curator at Chartwell NT Katherine Carter, they will discuss Churchill’s journey as an artist which started at the age of 40, when painting provided him with great joy and became his antidote to the pressures of public life.

👉 Join us from 7.15pm:

Plus Tate Britain’s show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

18/05/2026

'Painting was a constant through the vicissitudes of politics and family life, when he was out of office again in 1922 and when the Churchills' daughter Marigold died aged two of sepsis.

In 1925, his anonymous entry in a painting competition won first place. The judges were Oswald Birley, Kenneth Clarke and Lord Joseph Duveen. That painting, now titled 'Winter Sunshine, Chartwell', so bold, loose and impressionistic with its confident handling of paint, was also accepted by the RA summer exhibition, submitted under the pseudonym 'David Winter'.

There was a career opening had he wanted it ; as Picasso would later comment: "If that man were a painter by profession, he would have no trouble earning a good living."

Read Hermione Eyre's preview of Winston Churchill: The Painter in The Spectator: https://spectator.com/article/how-winston-churchill-painted-himself-out-of-the-darkness/

Winston Churchill: The Painter
Opens Saturday 23 May

At Chartwell, Sir Winston Churchill’s home of 42 years, now owned by the National Trust, lies his painting studio. Reached by a path through the green-gold gardens, it is a standalone building with a little doorway and a soaring ceiling, clearly a place of refuge, and recreation, but also of serio...