Churchill at War: The Famous Stoneman Portrait Photograph of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in 1941, Amidst the Blitz, Signed by Churchill

The Blitz, from September 7, 1940–May 11, 1941, was an intense bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany against Great Britain during World War I. For eight months the Luftwaffe dropped bombs on London and other strategic cities. The attacks were authorized after the British carried out a nighttime air raid on Berlin. The offensive came to be called the Blitz after the German word blitzkrieg (“lightning war”).

When photographer Walter Stoneman arrived at 10 Downing Street on April 1, 1941, with the Blitz ongoing, he realized this was a historic occasion. He recorded the exact time he took the Prime Minister’s picture as 3pm. At this moment, Churchill was waiting for word on Germany’s fateful invasion of Yugoslavia, information made possible in part by the English decryption of German Enigma messages. The photograph Stoneman took that day captures Churchill’s resolve and the gravity of the moment. It remains, along with Karsh’s portrait (done a full 9 months later), an enduring symbol of Churchill at war. Churchill liked the Stoneman image and gave out copies signed on the mount to notables and others; one copy sat on Stalin’s desk.

A black and white Stoneman photograph of Churchill, 6 ¼ x 7 ¾ inches, mounted to an overall size of 7 ½ x 10 inches, showing Churchill wearing a dark suit and bowtie, sitting with his right arm propped on the Cabinet Office table. It is signed and dated on the mount, “Winston S. Churchill / 1946.” With the photographer’s imprint on verso.