LONDON (AP) -- A portrait of Winston Churchill by an artist whose work the British leader loathed went on display Tuesday at Churchill's birthplace ahead of an auction in June.
The painting by modernist artist Graham Sutherland was made in preparation for a larger portrait Churchill hated and which was later destroyed -- an episode recounted in the TV series "The Crown."
The surviving oil-on-canvas study shows Churchill's head in profile against a dark background. It is expected to sell for between $622,000 and $995,000 at Sotheby's in London on June 6.
Sutherland was commissioned by the Houses of Parliament to paint Churchill to mark his 80th birthday in 1954. The full-length portrait was unveiled in Parliament that year, with Churchill calling it, with a smirk, "a remarkable example of modern art."
Churchill is said to have complained the painting "makes me look half-witted, which I ain't." It was delivered to his home and never seen again. The Churchill family disclosed years later it had been destroyed.
Its fate was recreated with poetic license in an episode of "The Crown" in which Churchill's wife, Clementine, watches the painting go up in flames.
A member of staff from Sotheby's poses for the media with a portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 500-800,000 pounds sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A member of staff from Sotheby's poses for the media with a portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 500-800,000 pounds sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, on view at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 5-800,000 pound sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A member of staff from Sotheby's poses for the media with a portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 500-800,000 pounds sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A member of staff from Sotheby's poses for the media with a portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 500-800,000 pounds sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A member of staff from Sotheby's poses for the media with a portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 500-800,000 pounds sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
A member of staff from Sotheby's poses for the media with a portrait of the iconic former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted by Graham Sutherland in 1954, at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, England, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. The portrait will be sold at auction on June 6 with an estimated price of 500-800,000 pounds sterling (US621, 000-1,000,000). Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)