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Session 4. "If you see decay..." The painter and the sitter

The Crown, Season 1, Episode 9, "Assassins": Churchill and Graham Sutherland, 1954.

Key question: Should a portrait tell the truth, even when the truth hurts?
55 minutes: Recap 5 min · Point du professeur 10 min · Document 8 min · Vocabulary 7 min · Grammar 12 min · Figures and idioms 6 min · Task 7 min

Recap · marked /3

What we already know

The passive in all tenses: was crowned, has been shown, will be remembered.
Impersonal passive: She is said to have been nervous.
Metonymy: the Crown, the throne, Downing Street.

Quick quiz (one point each)

Passive: They are filming the procession.
Which moment of the coronation was not televised?
What is "the Crown" in "the Crown has decided"?

Answers

The procession is being filmed.
The anointing.
a metonymy for the monarchy and the state

1Le point du professeur10 min

Pour le professeur

Pour raconter la dispute entre Churchill et son peintre, les élèves doivent rapporter des paroles : discours indirect avec concordance des temps, verbes introducteurs précis (claim, insist, retort, admit, deny, accuse) et conditionnels 0 et 1, présents dans la réplique de Sutherland. Faire relever les phrases en if de l'extrait avant de construire le tableau.

Starting point

"If you see decay, it's because there's decay." (zero conditional: a general truth)

Zero and first conditionals

Zero: If + present, present. If a painter flatters, the portrait lies.
First: If + present, will. If you reject it, Parliament will be offended. Also unless, as long as, provided that.

Reported speech: backshift

Direct	Reported
"It is cruel."	He said it was cruel.
"I have shown the sketches to your wife."	He said he had shown the sketches to his wife.
"I will not accept it."	He said he would not accept it.
"Don't overreact."	He told him not to overreact.
"Do you make monsters of everyone?"	He asked whether he made monsters of everyone.

Direct

Reported

"It is cruel."

He said it was cruel.

"I have shown the sketches to your wife."

He said he had shown the sketches to his wife.

"I will not accept it."

He said he would not accept it.

"Don't overreact."

He told him not to overreact.

"Do you make monsters of everyone?"

He asked whether he made monsters of everyone.

Also: today → that day, here → there, tomorrow → the next day. No backshift for permanent truths: He insisted that age is cruel.

Precise reporting verbs

claim that, insist that, admit that, deny + -ing, accuse somebody of + -ing, refuse to, urge somebody to, retort that.

Help: in reported speech, the tense goes one step back: is → was, will → would, have done → had done.

2The document8 min

Official video: The Crown | Featurette: "Churchill" | Netflix (Netflix, YouTube)
An official Netflix featurette (2016) on John Lithgow's Churchill. No official clip of the portrait scene exists, so we study short lines from Season 1, Episode 9, "Assassins".

Churchill: That is not a painting. It's a humiliation.The Crown, S1E9 "Assassins", Netflix, 2016.

Sutherland: Age is cruel! If you see decay, it's because there's decay. If you see frailty, it's because there's frailty. I can't be blamed for what is.Same episode. Short quotation for study.

The real story. For Winston Churchill's 80th birthday, both Houses of Parliament commissioned a portrait from Graham Sutherland. It was unveiled in Westminster Hall on 30 November 1954. Churchill disliked it intensely; in his speech he called it, with heavy irony, "a remarkable example of modern art". Lady Churchill later had it destroyed, a fact that became public only after her death in 1977. Sutherland's preparatory studies survive. The portrait is protected by copyright and has no public-domain image.

Link with the Queen. Churchill was the first of her 15 prime ministers, from Winston Churchill in 1952 to Liz Truss, whom she appointed at Balmoral on 6 September 2022, two days before her death. Every week she held a private audience with the Prime Minister: what was said there was never reported. See Monarchy and property, part 1.

Understanding the document

Why was the portrait painted?
What does Churchill reproach the painter with?
What is Sutherland's defence?
What happened to the real painting?
Why is the scene placed in a series about the Queen?

Answers

As a gift from both Houses of Parliament for Churchill's 80th birthday in 1954.
Humiliating him: showing him old and weak, as a betrayal.
He paints what he sees; age, not the artist, is cruel; he refuses to hide the truth.
Lady Churchill had it destroyed; this was revealed after her death in 1977.
It mirrors her own situation: a public figure facing her image and her ageing; truth versus flattery in royal portraits.

3Building your vocabulary

Word	Meaning
to commission, a commission	to order a work of art
to unveil, an unveiling	to show a work for the first time
a preparatory study, a sketch	a drawing made before the final work
frailty, frail	physical weakness
decay, to decay	slow decline
vindictive	wanting revenge
a betrayal, to betray	breaking somebody's trust
to take offence, to be offended	to feel insulted
to resent	to feel bitter about
uncompromising	refusing to soften the truth

Word

Meaning

to commission, a commission

to order a work of art

to unveil, an unveiling

to show a work for the first time

a preparatory study, a sketch

a drawing made before the final work

frailty, frail

physical weakness

decay, to decay

slow decline

vindictive

wanting revenge

a betrayal, to betray

breaking somebody's trust

to take offence, to be offended

to feel insulted

to resent

to feel bitter about

uncompromising

refusing to soften the truth

Exercise 1. Synonyms

Find a word from the table.

weakness
decline
to reveal publicly
to order (a work)
a rough drawing
refusing to soften the truth

Answers

frailty
decay
to unveil
to commission
a sketch
uncompromising

Exercise 2. Prepositions

Complete.

to accuse somebody ______ lying
to be offended ______ a remark
to sit ______ a painter
to object ______ a portrait
to be ashamed ______ oneself

Answers

4Grammar in practice

From recognition to open production.

RecognitionExercise 3. Which conditional?

Zero or first?

If you see decay, it's because there's decay.
If he rejects the gift, Parliament will be offended.
If a painter flatters, he lies.
Unless he changes his mind, the portrait will be destroyed.

Answers

zero
first
zero
first (unless = if not)

Controlled practiceExercise 4. Report the words

Use the verb in brackets.

Churchill: "It is a humiliation." (claim)
Sutherland: "I refuse to disguise what I see." (insist)
Churchill: "You have betrayed me." (accuse)
Sutherland: "Don't overreact." (urge)
Churchill: "I will not accept it." (refuse)
Sutherland: "I showed the sketches to your wife." (point out)

Answers

Churchill claimed (that) it was a humiliation.
Sutherland insisted that he refused to disguise what he saw.
Churchill accused Sutherland of betraying (having betrayed) him.
Sutherland urged him not to overreact.
Churchill refused to accept it.
Sutherland pointed out that he had shown the sketches to his wife.

TransformationExercise 5. Questions and commands

Report.

"Do you make monsters of everyone you admire?"
"Why did you paint me like this?"
"Give it time."
"Will you come tomorrow?"

Answers

Churchill asked whether (if) he made monsters of everyone he admired.
He asked him why he had painted him like that.
He told him to give it time.
He asked if he would come the next day.

AccuracyAccuracy check. Find the mistake

Each sentence contains one mistake. Find it and correct it.

Churchill said him that the portrait was a humiliation.
Sutherland asked if did Churchill like the portrait.
Churchill told that he hated it.
If you will see decay, it's because there is decay.
The painter asked him to not move.
He denied to have destroyed the painting.

Answers

Churchill told him that the portrait was a humiliation.
Sutherland asked if Churchill liked the portrait.
Churchill said that he hated it.
If you see decay, it's because there is decay.
The painter asked him not to move.
He denied having destroyed the painting.

Open productionExercise 6. The argument, reported

Write a 150-word report of the scene for a newspaper, using six different reporting verbs, a reported question, a reported command and one zero conditional.

Help: use "claimed that", "insisted that", "accused him of", "refused to".

5Figures of speech

Hyperbole and invective: "a Judas wielding his murderous brush" (Churchill).
Anaphora and parallelism: "If you see decay... If you see frailty..."
Personification: "Age is cruel".
Irony: "a remarkable example of modern art" (Churchill's real speech).

Exercise 7. Name the figure

Hyperbole, anaphora, personification or irony?

"Age is cruel."
"If you see decay... If you see frailty..."
"a Judas wielding his murderous brush"
"a remarkable example of modern art" (said of a hated painting)

Answers

personification
anaphora
hyperbole (biblical metaphor)
irony

6Idioms

warts and all
including all the faults; without idealising.
Traditionally linked to Oliver Cromwell, who is said to have asked the painter Peter Lely to paint him with his warts, an anecdote reported by Horace Walpole in the 18th century.
Sutherland painted Churchill warts and all.

to paint somebody in a bad light
to present somebody unfavourably.
Painting metaphor.
The press painted him in a bad light.

to call a spade a spade
to speak plainly and honestly.
An old expression found in English since the 16th century, from a translation of Plutarch.
Sutherland called a spade a spade.

to add insult to injury
to make a bad situation worse.
From a fable attributed to Phaedrus.
He hated the gift and, to add insult to injury, it was unveiled in public.

Exercise 8. Complete

Use an idiom.

I want the truth, ______.
The article ______ the minister ______.
She doesn't hide her opinions: she ______.
He lost his job and, ______, his car was stolen.

Answers

warts and all
painted ... in a bad light
calls a spade a spade
to add insult to injury

7Expression task7 min

Role play, then report. A is a sitter who hates his or her portrait; B is the painter. Two minutes of argument, then a third student reports the dispute to the class using five reporting verbs.

Exit ticket · formative check

Report: "I am not a pitiful creature."
Report the command: "Burn it!"
Meaning of "warts and all"?

Answers

He said (that) he was not a pitiful creature.
She told them to burn it.
including the faults, without idealising

C1+Going further (towards C2)

Debate in writing (C1+). "A portrait owes nothing to its sitter." 250 words for or against, with two conditionals, two reporting structures and a concession (admittedly, granted, even so).

Nuance: compare to imply, to hint, to insinuate, to suggest and use each in a sentence about the scene.

HWHomework

Learn the reporting verbs with their patterns. Report a real argument (from a film, a match, a debate) in 12 lines.