Remarkably, it was not until he turned 40 that Winston Churchill entered an art gallery. Before then, the closest Churchill had come to art was an affection for cartoons. In the summer of 1915, however, he picked up a paintbrush that belonged to his sister-in-law Gwendoline. Recently fired as First Lord of the Admiralty, and extremely depressed, Churchill’s plunge into painting lifted him out of the dark mood of the “black dog,” as he called it. Joy returned. And so began a treasured hobby that would keep Churchill happy and engaged for the rest of his life. By the time of his death, in 1965, he’d created over 600 works that now achieve eye-watering prices when they come up for sale. “Winston Churchill: The Painter” presents viewers with 90 of these “daubs,” as Churchill liked to describe them—wartime scenes, landscapes, still lifes, portraits, images of his home and garden. —Sarah Hyde