John Spencer Churchill (1909 - 1992)
The Blue Cockatoo, 1980
Oil on Board
Hand made, hand painted frame
Ready to hang
Framed Dimensions 27 x 34cm
Hand made, hand painted frame
Ready to hang
Framed Dimensions 27 x 34cm
Signed and dated lower left
Further images
Between 1914 and the 1960's, when it closed, the Blue Cockatoo off Oakley Street and Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, was like a thrumming Parisian Cafe of artists, actors, writers and thinkers. John Spencer Churchill, who in this delightful oil painting portrays its conspicuous blue facade, lived around the corner and was a patron too.
An autograph book kept by Hettie, a waitress, who worked at the restaurant for 27 years, shows a veritable who's who of guests including Augustus John, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Walter and Leonard Greaves, Balthus, Dame Sybil Thorndike, Julian Huxley, Frederick Ashton, Anton Dolin, Robert Helpmann, Wilfred Hyde White and Sir William Orpen.