Original Photo of a Young Churchill

Portrait of Winston Churchill [Cabinet Card]

Haines, Reginald (photographer)

Notes: An uncommon and early portrait of the great British Prime Minister taken when he was a Liberal M.P. representing Manchester Northwest in Parliament. Churchill was also a newly appointed member of the Privy Council and Under-Secretary of State for the British Colonies, playing an active role in African affairs.

Churchill, in this half-length seated portrait, is young (about 33) and still a bit dough-faced, but there is a certain steely hardness in his eyes and mouth.

My dating of this photograph is based on the National Portrait Gallery's cataloguing of its copy of this image.

Albumen silver print, 4 by 6 inches, on a slightly larger cardstock mount with beveled edges and the photographer's imprint in a script font at the base which reads, "A Portrait by Reginald Haynes; 4 Southampton Row, W.C."

Edition + Condition: A very good image, with deep contrast and rich brown tones. There is a small defect, perhaps a fingerprint, in the lower right corner, but this is a flaw in the original negative—the National Portrait Gallery print has the same small flaw. The corners of the mount are chipped, not affecting the photograph. The verso (back) of the mount has many ink stamps from image libraries, the earliest one dated 1914.

Publication: London: Reginald Haines, (ca. 1907).

Item No: #308019

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