Trout Museum of Art executive director Tim Riley (right) and visitor services associate Lawton Hall hang works that will be part of the "Art of Sir Winston Churchill," an exhibit set to open Friday. This painting, titled "Pont du Gard, Nimes," was the work of Churchill. / Dan Powers/The Post-Crescent

A new exhibit opening Friday at the Trout Museum of Art in downtown Appleton showcases three of about 500 paintings that British leader Sir Winston Churchill created during his lifetime.

It's common knowledge that Churchill, Great Britain's prime minister during World War II, helped guide his nation through the conflict and played a major role in the Allies' victory over Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

But Churchill's arts accomplishments show another side of the statesman, a self-described pastime painter who took up the hobby of oil painting at age 40. He often indulged his passion at his country home of Chartwell and on his travels through countries including France, Italy, Morocco and Scotland.

"One of the things about my grandfather was that he lived very much in the moment, and whatever he was doing, he did to the full of his ability," said Edwina Sandys, one of Churchill's granddaughters and an award-winning artist who lives in New York City.

"In his case, he came to (painting) late, and it became one of the loves of his life. He picked it up and did it quite freely. When he was doing his painting, he was totally absorbed in it. Maybe that's the secret of his success as a person, that whatever he did, he did wholeheartedly."

"Art of Sir Winston Churchill" features several pieces by Churchill's family members, including Sandys, Churchill's daughter, Sarah Churchill, and Churchill's nephew, John Spencer-Churchill. The exhibit also presents images of Churchill as preserved by artists such as Oscar Nemon, who became Churchill's most favored sculptor.

In addition, a section of the exhibit called "The Greatest Generation of Pastime Painters" includes works on a variety of themes by Wisconsin and Fox Valley artists who are World War II and Korean War veterans.

The exhibit opens with a public reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Friday. It runs through July 29 at the museum, 111 W. College Ave., downtown Appleton.

Timothy Riley, the museum's executive director, said Dr. Monroe Trout and his wife, Sandra, for whom the museum is named, were a driving force behind the genesis of the exhibit.

"I was first introduced to the art of Churchill by Dr. Monroe Trout, and his passion for the subject matter really inspired us to organize this exhibition," Riley said.

The museum assembled the exhibit with the assistance of, among others, the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, England; the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Mo.; Nemon's estate; and private collections.

"This will be an interesting exhibit because it will show another side of Churchill that even historians often don't know much about," said Monica Rico, an associate professor of history at Lawrence University in Appleton.

"Churchill really was a beacon of leadership, inspiring people with his speaking and his commitment to the war effort. It was a period in which radio had this incredible power, so Churchill's speeches over the radio to the British people are some of the most famous in history. He combined this quality of being born to leadership with being someone who could speak to people's fears and hopes."

Churchill came into his own as an accomplished artist without expecting to receive acclaim for his work or acknowledgement as a professional painter, Riley said.

"He wrote an essay in the 1920s about painting as a pastime, which was reprinted in the 1950s and translated into many languages," Riley said. "Essentially, he states that anybody can do it. And that was one of the chief reasons we wanted to organize this exhibition. It's encouraging."

Appleton art enthusiast Jean Detjen, a member of the exhibit's planning committee, said the exhibit looks beyond the larger-than-life Churchill to reveal a very human man who painted the things he enjoyed.

"For him nature was a solace, and he respected beauty and the spiritual side of nature," Detjen said. "He also loved to paint in his library surrounded by the books he so loved."

One of Churchill's paintings in the exhibit, a 1938 work entitled "Beach at Walmer," stands out because of its historical and political references. In it, several people are playing in the water while a cannon sits in the foreground.

"He preferred landscapes and nature scenes," Riley said. "This is a very unusual painting for Churchill but it happened at a momentous time in the history of Great Britain. It is symbolically a very important painting because Churchill was a lone voice in Britain at the time who saw the atrocities of the war coming. In this painting he foreshadowed what he would do when he became prime minister of Great Britain a couple years later and rallied the British citizens to resist the German attack."

A bronze portrait bust of Churchill by Nemon once captivated Churchill's wife, Clementine.

"Clementine said to Nemon, 'This is the true Churchill, the one that I know,'" Riley said. "At first glance the sculpture looks rather stern but as you look at details of his face and cheekbones and eyebrows, you can see a part of Churchill's humanity that Nemon was able to capture exceedingly well."

Photography in the exhibit depicts a time when Nemon was able to coax a sculpture out of Churchill, who typically painted.

"At one point when Churchill was sitting for a sculpture, he became somewhat anxious and impatient, so Nemon said to Churchill, in order to calm him down, 'If I am going to sculpt you, then you shall sculpt me.' Nemon then presented Churchill with some clay and Churchill proceeded to execute his first — as far as we know, only — sculpture," Riley said.

Other pieces in the exhibit pay homage to Churchill's observations of the world.

Sandys' "Breakthrough" is the most ambitious piece the museum has installed since the Appleton Compassion Project, Riley said.

The full-scale, 32-by-12-foot photo-on-canvas reproduction incorporates segments of the Berlin Wall. The original piece is installed in Fulton, Mo. There, Churchill in 1946 delivered his famous "Iron Curtain" speech, which served as a warning about the Cold War.

"Churchill said that an 'iron curtain' soon would be built dividing Europe," Riley said. "Shortly after the Berlin Wall came down, Edwina (Sandys) convinced the German government to give to her eight sections of the wall, and she proceeded to sculpt and carve through two abstract human figures, one male, one female, into the wall, so that viewers could easily walk right through what was once one of the most formidable barriers of the Cold War," Riley said.

When visitors enter the museum's vestibule, they will be able to walk through the reproduction of the sculpture to reach the rest of the exhibit.

"While Churchill never lived to see the Berlin Wall come down, his granddaughter, through her art, symbolically closed the circle by opening up and breaking through that 'iron curtain,'" Riley said.