During the Second World War, Winston Churchill produced only one painting. We should be grateful he otherwise eschewed his beloved pastime. As he wrote in a 1948 essay, “Painting is complete as a distraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind. Whatever the worries of the hour or the threats of the future, once the picture has begun to flow along, there is no room for them in the mental screen. They pass out into shadow and darkness. All one’s mental light, such as it is, becomes concentrated on the task. Time stands respectfully aside, and it is only after many hesitations that luncheon knocks gruffly at the door.” Given his description of painting as fully engrossing, who knows how differently the war might have turned out had the indispensable leader given in more often to the temptation to put brush to canvas.

Churchill’s outsized role during the global struggle makes it easy to see why historians and biographers have paid scant attention to his painting—there is so much else to write about—but it was an important part of his life. Though he was 40 before he began to paint, he managed to produce about 500 canvases.