Statesmen of World War I
- Artist: Sir James Guthrie
- Date: 1924-1930
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 156 in. x 132 in. (3962 mm x 3353 mm) overall
- Portrays: Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, George Nicoll Barnes, Sir Robert Laird Borden, Louis Botha, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, Sir Joseph Cook, Ganga Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner, Sir Eric Campbell Geddes, Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, William Morris Hughes, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, Andrew Bonar Law, David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George, William Ferguson Massey, Alfred Milner, Viscount Milner, Edward Patrick Morris, 1st Baron Morris, Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
In this giant canvas—oil on canvas and over a meter tall—Sir James Guthrie gathers the key civilian leaders of Britain and its empire during the Great War. You can see each individual study: from Arthur Balfour’s bookish gaze, through Winston Churchill’s confident smile, to Ganga Singh of Bikaner, the only Indian signatory on the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. The canvas itself is 156 × 132 inches, almost four by three metres. The figures sit around a sculpted winged goddess Nike in bronze‑like paint, symbolising victory. The painter followed Dutch militia groups such as Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” and Velázquez for grandeur, while his own study photographs set each pose. The composition spans a long canvas with portraits arranged like a colonial council.
See it in person
Statesmen of World War I is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
