Churchill portrait artist Graham Sutherland gets blue plaque

Artist Graham Sutherland, who painted a portrait of Sir Winston Churchill that the wartime leader hated, has been honoured with a blue plaque in south London.

The commemorative plate from English Heritage is located at his childhood home, on Dorset Road in Merton Park.

Sutherland’s painting of Churchill was commissioned in 1954 by the Houses of Parliament, but the former prime minister hated the depiction so much that it was taken away and secretly burnt on the orders of his wife, Lady Clementine Churchill.

Last year Sutherland’s preparatory painting of Churchill was sold by Sotheby’s auction house for £660,000.

Sutherland trained at Goldsmiths’ College in the 1920s and was commissioned as an official war artist during World War Two.

He painted dozens of portraits in the 1950s and 60s and was also known for his religious artwork including the central tapestry for the new Coventry Cathedral – Christ In Glory In The Tetramorph – which he designed.

Sutherland died in February 1980 aged 76.

Author Rosemary Hill, former English Heritage blue plaques panel member, described Sutherland as a “master in tapestry and stained glass as well as an etcher and painter”.

“After his death, his reputation rose and fell – overshadowed sometimes by that of his more spectacular friend Francis Bacon,” she said.

“It has now found its proper level, close to the heart of 20th Century British art.”

The London blue plaques scheme was started in 1866 and is thought to be the oldest of its kind in the world.