Sir Winston Churchill painting which cheered up Vivien Leigh up for auction

The Gone With The Wind actress placed Roses In A Glass Vase on the wall opposite her bed, after the wartime prime minister gave it to her as a present, and told how it gave her “the determination to go on”.

The painting is going on display for the first time, at Sotheby’s in London, before it could fetch £100,000 at auction.

It was painted from flowers Sir Winston picked from his garden at his country home, Chartwell, Kent.

The oil painting has been with the actress and then her family ever since Sir Winston gave it to her, during a midnight supper he hosted at his home in 1951.

The dinner was held to mark the birthday of actor Sir Laurence Olivier, Leigh’s husband.

It is expected to be one of the star lots of Sotheby’s sale of Leigh’s personal collection on September 26.

But a painting by the late actress, from Hollywood’s Golden Age, will also be revealed.

The double Oscar winner’s painting of an Italian landscape (£200-£300) will be sold alongside her canvas artist’s bag containing a wooden box with oil paints, as well as a travelling folding easel (£800-£1,200).

It is thought that Sir Winston’s book, Painting As A Pastime,  on the therapeutic benefits of making art, may have inspired the actress to pick up a paintbrush.

And his inscribed copy of the book, another gift to the A Streetcar Named Desire actress, could fetch up to £2,000.

The politician was better known for his landscape paintings but inspired by the tulips, daffodils, roses, mallows and  nasturtiums in the flowerbeds of his garden.

And the actress later said of her gift: “Whenever I feel particularly low or depressed I look at those three rosebuds.

“The thought and the friendship in the painting is such a great encouragement to me… and I have the determination to go on.”

In another lot, set to fetch up to £3,000, Sir Winston secretly promises to donate £500 to St James’s Theatre, which the actress was trying to save.

His letter is dated July 18 1957 a week after the star had been escorted out of the House of Lords following her impulsive defence against the theatre’s demolition.

Unable to publicly support Leigh, Sir Winston wrote: “I hope you will succeed in your defence of St James’s Theatre, though as a parliamentarian I cannot approve your disorderly method… I shall be definitely committed to the cause”.

Cartoons which parodied the actress for marching along Fleet Street in protest at the planned demolition, ringing a bell to draw attention to a sandwich board she was wearing, are also up for sale.

They include a cartoon joking: “Vivien, dear, repeat after Larry (Olivier): ‘I will be a good girl and come straight to rehearsals. I must not join protest makers on the way. I  must not call the House of Lords and wake everybody up.'”

Frances Christie, head of Sotheby’s modern and post-war British art department, said that Sir Winston’s oil painting revealed the deep and long-lasting friendship between the unlikely pair.

“Churchill’s gift of a still life of roses to Vivien speaks volumes about the respect and regard he felt for her,” she said.

“Theirs was not a passing acquaintance, but a friendship that endured for more than 20 years. He inspired her to begin painting and it is poignant to think that they shared a mutual solace in an activity where they found a refuge from all the trials and tribulations of daily life.”

Sir Winston and Leigh first met in 1936, on the set of Fire Over England, when she was a little-known actress and he an established Parliamentarian more than twice her age.

Their friendship would last for 30 years, until Sir Winston’s death in 1965.

:: Sir Winston’s still life painting and Vivien Leigh’s Italian landscape will be on display from July 17 to August 11 at Sotheby’s, New Bond Street, London.