2023-07-18 18:01:00
Before it was renamed following Winston Churchill in the last months of the Second World War, the grand boulevard in Dinant on the right bank of the Meuse honored… Marshal Philippe Pétain. A hero logically replaced a bastard.
The V for victory for the photo, Dinant was entitled to it during Churchill’s visits.
At the end of the conflict, when he was no longer Prime Minister (the winner of the Nazis, despite his immense popularity, had lost the elections, to his great displeasure), Churchill passed through the Mosan city twice, in 1946 and 1948. Incognito… Winston style. In the archives of the City, months before he landed, there are traces of a local committee which decided to prepare a gift and fixed the maximum price. So we knew that this giant of history was going to land… but he did so without announcing it. It was therefore in the middle of the council meeting, on Thursday, September 26, 1946 in the followingnoon, that the city councilors learned that the Englishman was at the Cadoux quay (left bank, at the foot of the current Maison du tourisme). He arrived from the castle of Ciergnon, where he had been received by Charles, the Regent, the “replacement” of Leopold 3 having then done him the honors of the castle of Ardenne, in Houyet.
With Mary, his daughter, in 1946
Winston Churchill was traveling with one of his children, his daughter Mary. The latter, while her warrior, politician but also artist father was painting, had climbed to the citadel. Where a guide, obviously not recognizing her, whispered a secret to her: “Winston Churchill would be in Dinant”. Imagine his smile. On her way down, she was intercepted and welcomed by the alderman Marcel Seguin, he offered her a brassware and a couque. While the mayor Émile Leclef and other elected officials rushed to the quai Cadoux. There were already some curious people there.
Cigar in the mouth on the quai Cadoux, a few meters from the bridge which was not yet called “Charles de Gaulle”.
If the illustrious visitor did not attract attention for a while, employees of Registration (their office was nearby at the time) recognized him, they brought him a chair and a table. Onlookers ended up regrouping, the gendarmerie established a security perimeter, while the political delegation of the City arrived hastily. Winston Churchill also received a brassware, he put it on his heart, he made the famous V for victory for the photo. This is how the “incognito” visit of a character with a destiny forged by a character as extraordinary as it was original happened. Hitler’s worst nightmare in Dinant! It was an event. It is said that people searched the wharf for bits of cigars, to take them away as relics. A policeman had better luck: Churchill offered him one of his famous “bolts”.
With his wife Clémentine in 1948
Friendly anecdotes. But the first goal of the giant of history was indeed to paint the valley. What he did, with a point of view not on the citadel and the collegiate church, but downstream, towards the castle of Crèvecœur. He did it on September 26, 1946. Then, with his daughter Mary, he got back in the car to Ciergnon, where the Regent Charles was waiting for him.
First visit to Dinant, first painting done. On October 17, 1948, Winston Churchill returned to the same place, still wearing a white apron. He puts down his easel and repaints the same landscape. With a nuance: this time, he represents himself with the brush in his hand, we see him from behind.
The canvas painted in 1948 is almost similar to that of 1946… except that Churchill is represented there.
In 1948, he was accompanied by Governor Gruslin. The latter visits the citadel with Mrs. Churchill (named Clémentine) and a host of personalities. While Winston immortalizes the Meuse valley in his very personal way, which a colleague of the time will summarize as follows: “Despite the prestige of the artist, on the whole, it is not famous”. Nevertheless, in 1987, the burgomaster Émile Bourdeaux, to enrich the city’s archives, asked the curator of Chartwell, Churchill’s family mansion in Kent, to acquire photographic copies of the paintings, which he received at provided that they are not used for commercial purposes.
During this second artistic visit, Churchill and his wife have lunch at the Hotel des Ardennes (it is offered by the Regent Charles). We imagine that it is not in the water, knowing Winston, who rests following the meal before returning to his easel.
Winston Churchill in a white apron, to paint a Mosan landscape, which he did twice in Dinant, in the same place.
Interlude in a multi-faceted life (she was also literary, with a Nobel Prize at stake), her political career not being over. Churchill never gave up, he managed to become prime minister once more in 1951. He died in 1965.
This content is not available in this configuration.
Find out here.
Thanks to the historian and archivist of the City of Dinant Michel Coleau, for his precious and indispensable help.
1689721278
#page #history #Dinant #avenue #bridge #giants #Churchill #Gaulle
