London, Nov 3 (ANI): Head lowered against a black background and a frown creasing his brow, a portrait of Winston Churchill that is on display at the National Portrait Gallery captures the British leader at his lowest ebb.
It is a far cry from the iconic images of Britain's charismatic wartime leader in his trademark bowler hat, holding his fingers in a "V" for Victory sign, or puffing on a fat cigar.
But William Orpen's haunting portrait is the one Churchill himself treasured most, with the then 41-year-old describing it as "the picture of a man's soul," the Daily Mail reported.
Churchill sat for Orpen in 1916 - as Britain was counting the human cost of the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign, the then First Lord of the Admiralty had championed the year before.
Irish artist Orpen was an official war painter of the First World War, producing renditions of privates, dead soldiers and German Prisoners of War, as well as official portraits of generals and statesmen.
Churchill sat for Orpen on 11 occasions in 1916, an experience the artist is said to have found tense and difficult, given the state of mind of his subject.
Nonetheless, the final work met with the approval of Churchill, who upon seeing the painting is said to have told Orpen: "It is not the picture of a man. It is the picture of a man's soul."
The suffering Orpen witnessed during his time as a war painter is said to have affected him deeply, and critics have attributed an occasional "shallowness" in his portraits to emotional exhaustion in the wake of the Great War.
The London gallery unveiled its new addition this week after securing the painting on a 10-year loan from Churchill's estate.
Aside from a brief period on display at the Imperial War Museum in 2005, the "deeply personal" portrait has remained within the Churchill family.
The portrait is displayed prominently in the early 20th-century room, illustrating Churchill's significance in the context of the First World War, the gallery said. (ANI)
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