“If it weren’t for painting, I couldn’t live. I couldn’t bear the strain of things.” - Sir Winston Churchill

In 1915, at age 40, Winston Churchill was ousted as First Lord of the Admiralty during Britain’s disastrous Gallipoli campaign. It was a low point for the future prime minister, but recovery began in the most unlikely of places: in the garden, with a box of paints.

This fall, 46 of Churchill’s finest canvases are collected in “The Paintings of Sir Winston Churchill,” one of the most significant exhibitions of Churchill’s work ever in North America. 

The exhibition is on view through Feb. 14 at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis and is organized in collaboration with the National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo. It coincides with “Churchill 2015,” a worldwide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Churchill’s death.

In this video, Tim Riley, painting curator for the National Churchill Museum, and artist Edwina Sandys, Churchill’s granddaughter and author of the forthcoming book “Winston Churchill: A Passion for Painting,” discuss Churchill’s art and what it reveals about his life and character.

“It’s a challenge to finish a painting,” Sandys said. “You have to stay at it.”

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum is open to the public and admission is always free. For more information, call 314-935-4523; visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu