Touria El Glaoui: The Sir Winston Churchill and Hassan EL Glaoui exhibition at Leighton House.
The exhibition at Leighton House of the paintings of Marrakech by Sir Winston Churchill and Hassan EL Glaoui has been a great success. North Africa United talked to Hassan El Glaoui's daugher Touria about the exhibition.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Touria-El-Glaou...
North Africa United : Do you have any details that you can recount about the relationship between Winston Churchill and your father? It is well known that he persuaded the Pacha to allow your father to continue painting. Did Churchill discuss painting with him ?
Touria El Glaoui: First I want to clarify that my father does not recount meeting Churchill, however it was said that some drawings by my father in 1943 were shown to Winston Churchill by my grandfather while Churchill was convalescing in Marrakech. It is also said that Churchill dissolved any doubts that my grandfather might have had on my father becoming a great man and being a professional artist.
Q. Do you have any details about the correspondence between Churchill and Thami el Glaoui that you can share with us regarding his visits to Morocco ?
A: Yes I do, but best is to contact the Churchill archives, there are few letters between my grandfather the Pacha and Churchill discussing Churchill painting in Marrakech and its surroundings and others on different matters.
Q: Your father remarked at our interview in 2009 that his father the Pacha went to war on horseback and of course Churchill took part in the last major cavalry charge at Omdurman in 1898 did Churchill share your father's passion for horses and did they discuss this?
A: Churchill's granddaughter Celia Sandys wrote the following in the text she provided for the catalogue of Meetings in Marrakech : "the two men clearly hit it off. No doubt Churchill, who had always lived life to the full, appreciated the style that had brought El Glaoui the informal titles of Lord of the High Atlas and The Black Panther."
These dashing and romantic titles, official and unofficial, would certainly have captured my grandfather’s imagination.Anyone who has visited the Glaoui’s fortress in Telouet will understand the attraction it had for Churchill, a politician whose natural habitat was Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and the Palace of Westminster in London."
Q:.Churchill's daughter allowed Churchill's paintings to be displayed at Upper Grosvenor House alongside your father's paintings when your father first exhibited in London but Churchill's Marrakech paintings were not amongst them-why was this?
A: The paintings that are at Leighton House belongs to Chartwell/the National Trust. At the time, the exhibition that took place in 1968 in a gallery, was a selling exhibition for my father, it was not the theme of the exhibition. The work shown in the Museum today is about paintings of Marrakech and exhibition was curated with that theme in mind.
Q: What is the story behind the Leighton House exhibition and how was it arranged?
A:I have approached Leighton House and Celia Sandys about 2 years ago with this project, when I saw Leighton House I fell in love with the place, and Churchill's grand-daughter and Daniel Robbins the Curator were really enthusiastic about the project and it took us about 2 years to put the show together.
Q: Your father remarked that he painted what he saw and that " my love of country has been the definining spirit of my painting." and that he recorded the" red Cherifien Palaces ,the royal courteges with their long lines of white Bernouses " and describes his painting as "a living mirror of the past".Does he feel that some of what he recorded in terms of ceremony and granduer is still alive today?
A: It was much more present in the past, my father today and for the last years have done it from memories. I believe it is still present to some extent today.
Touria El Glaoui: First I want to clarify that my father does not recount meeting Churchill, however it was said that some drawings by my father in 1943 were shown to Winston Churchill by my grandfather while Churchill was convalescing in Marrakech. It is also said that Churchill dissolved any doubts that my grandfather might have had on my father becoming a great man and being a professional artist.
Q. Do you have any details about the correspondence between Churchill and Thami el Glaoui that you can share with us regarding his visits to Morocco ?
A: Yes I do, but best is to contact the Churchill archives, there are few letters between my grandfather the Pacha and Churchill discussing Churchill painting in Marrakech and its surroundings and others on different matters.
Q: Your father remarked at our interview in 2009 that his father the Pacha went to war on horseback and of course Churchill took part in the last major cavalry charge at Omdurman in 1898 did Churchill share your father's passion for horses and did they discuss this?
A: Churchill's granddaughter Celia Sandys wrote the following in the text she provided for the catalogue of Meetings in Marrakech : "the two men clearly hit it off. No doubt Churchill, who had always lived life to the full, appreciated the style that had brought El Glaoui the informal titles of Lord of the High Atlas and The Black Panther."
These dashing and romantic titles, official and unofficial, would certainly have captured my grandfather’s imagination.Anyone who has visited the Glaoui’s fortress in Telouet will understand the attraction it had for Churchill, a politician whose natural habitat was Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire and the Palace of Westminster in London."
Q:.Churchill's daughter allowed Churchill's paintings to be displayed at Upper Grosvenor House alongside your father's paintings when your father first exhibited in London but Churchill's Marrakech paintings were not amongst them-why was this?
A: The paintings that are at Leighton House belongs to Chartwell/the National Trust. At the time, the exhibition that took place in 1968 in a gallery, was a selling exhibition for my father, it was not the theme of the exhibition. The work shown in the Museum today is about paintings of Marrakech and exhibition was curated with that theme in mind.
Q: What is the story behind the Leighton House exhibition and how was it arranged?
A:I have approached Leighton House and Celia Sandys about 2 years ago with this project, when I saw Leighton House I fell in love with the place, and Churchill's grand-daughter and Daniel Robbins the Curator were really enthusiastic about the project and it took us about 2 years to put the show together.
Q: Your father remarked that he painted what he saw and that " my love of country has been the definining spirit of my painting." and that he recorded the" red Cherifien Palaces ,the royal courteges with their long lines of white Bernouses " and describes his painting as "a living mirror of the past".Does he feel that some of what he recorded in terms of ceremony and granduer is still alive today?
A: It was much more present in the past, my father today and for the last years have done it from memories. I believe it is still present to some extent today.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Touria-El-Glaou...