Yousuf Karsh The Roaring Lion
Early silver gelatin print, signed in white ink on recto.
He marched in scowling, and regarded my camera as he might regard the German enemy. His expression suited me perfectly, if I could capture it, but the cigar thrust between his teeth seemed somehow incompatible with such a solemn and formal occasion. Instinctively I removed the cigar. At this the Churchillian scowl deepened, the head was thrust forward belligerently, and the hand placed on the hip in an attitude of anger. So he stands in my portrait in what has always seemed to me the image of England in those years, defiant and unconquerable.
With a swift change of mood, he came towards me when I was finished, extending his hand and saying. “Well, you can certainly make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed”
Yousuf Karsh.
This photograph was taken at the Canadian House of Commons directly after sir Winston Churchill's famous speech “Some chicken…some neck”. Churchill’s stern demeanor also reflects the time in history. Pearl Habor had been bombed three weeks earlier on December 7th, 1941. Churchill immediately boarded a British destroyer and set sail for Washington D.C. Churchill spent Christmas with President Roosevelt and took two days out for a secret trip to address the Canadian government.
Early silver gelatin print, signed in white ink on recto.
He marched in scowling, and regarded my camera as he might regard the German enemy. His expression suited me perfectly, if I could capture it, but the cigar thrust between his teeth seemed somehow incompatible with such a solemn and formal occasion. Instinctively I removed the cigar. At this the Churchillian scowl deepened, the head was thrust forward belligerently, and the hand placed on the hip in an attitude of anger. So he stands in my portrait in what has always seemed to me the image of England in those years, defiant and unconquerable.
With a swift change of mood, he came towards me when I was finished, extending his hand and saying. “Well, you can certainly make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed”
Yousuf Karsh.
This photograph was taken at the Canadian House of Commons directly after sir Winston Churchill's famous speech “Some chicken…some neck”. Churchill’s stern demeanor also reflects the time in history. Pearl Habor had been bombed three weeks earlier on December 7th, 1941. Churchill immediately boarded a British destroyer and set sail for Washington D.C. Churchill spent Christmas with President Roosevelt and took two days out for a secret trip to address the Canadian government.
Early silver gelatin print, signed in white ink on recto.
He marched in scowling, and regarded my camera as he might regard the German enemy. His expression suited me perfectly, if I could capture it, but the cigar thrust between his teeth seemed somehow incompatible with such a solemn and formal occasion. Instinctively I removed the cigar. At this the Churchillian scowl deepened, the head was thrust forward belligerently, and the hand placed on the hip in an attitude of anger. So he stands in my portrait in what has always seemed to me the image of England in those years, defiant and unconquerable.
With a swift change of mood, he came towards me when I was finished, extending his hand and saying. “Well, you can certainly make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed”
Yousuf Karsh.
This photograph was taken at the Canadian House of Commons directly after sir Winston Churchill's famous speech “Some chicken…some neck”. Churchill’s stern demeanor also reflects the time in history. Pearl Habor had been bombed three weeks earlier on December 7th, 1941. Churchill immediately boarded a British destroyer and set sail for Washington D.C. Churchill spent Christmas with President Roosevelt and took two days out for a secret trip to address the Canadian government.