Winston Churchill - A Vintage Photograph

A vintage Cecil Beaton photograph of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister taken at one of the darkest moments of the Second World War with Europe under occupation and America not yet engaged in the war. The image is 245 x 260mm with a typed label to the verso: 'A new portrait of the Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill, P.C. taken in the Cabinet Room at No.10 Downing Street. Photograph by Cecil Beaton.' A second label from Arrow Publicity, Ltd, Sackville House, Piccadilly, places an embargo on the use of the photograph in the press 'before Monday, 23rd December, 1940'. The image shows Churchill in magnificently pugnacious mode sitting behind the Cabinet table with two Bakelite telephones in front of him. The image is framed with a transparent panel to the rear to allow the labels showing provenance to be viewed. Churchill had only become Prime Minister earlier in 1940 and this image was clearly released to the British press with the intention of boosting national morale. Earlier in December 1940 Anthony Eden wrote to Churchill that 'Very few men in history have had to bear such a burden as you have carried in the last six months. It is really wonderful that at the end of it you are fitter and more vigorous and better able than ever to guide and inspire us all.' This image is part of that inspiration.