A unique signed portrait of Winston Churchill, produced by artist Paul Trevillion, who worked with Everton legend Dixie Dean on his illustrated life story for the ECHO, is to be auctioned in London on Wednesday
A unique piece of art produced by a passionate Dixie Dean fan, who collaborated with Everton’s greatest goalscorer on his illustrated life story in the ECHO, goes under the hammer this week, with the auctioneers claiming there could be interest from Donald Trump! Renowned sports illustrator Paul Trevillion, 90, is one of the few football supporters left who can recall watching Dean in action, having been transfixed by the legendary Blues centre-forward when attending his first ever football match, shortly before his third birthday in 1937, an experience he shared in amazing detail when this correspondent interviewed him in his studio earlier this year.
Despite being a lifelong supporter of his local club, Tottenham, who as a Second Division club at the time, defeated a top flight Everton side containing both Dean and Tommy Lawton that day, 4-3 in an FA Cup fifth round replay at White Hart Lane, the infant Trevillion returned home asking his mother to add the Birkenhead-born star’s name to his Spurs scarf. Over two decades later, the artist would then get to meet his hero in person as he travelled up to Merseyside to work alongside Dean on his illustrated life story in the ECHO that ended up running over a marathon 21 weeks in the 1960/61 season.
By this point, Trevillion had already produced what is now the only known signed portrait of his other boyhood idol, Winston Churchill, who served as British Prime Minister during the Second World War, a piece of work due to be auctioned at the RAF Club in Picadilly on Wednesday. A press release from Hansons, who will oversee the sale, complete with a Trevillion illustration of US President-elect Trump, asks whether Churchill will join him in Washington D.C. and says the surge of interest in the States points in that direction.
READ MORE: Everton sweat on Jarrad Branthwaite injury as two players will be desperate for returnREAD MORE: Everton scars remain after historic statement sparked fury and defiance
Their statement reads: “Trump, who according to a source close to him, believes that Churchill is the greatest leader the world has ever seen, already vows to return a bust of Churchill to the White House – now the intriguing question is could the 1955 portrait of Sir Winston Churchill by British artist Paul Trevillion, find a place on the Oval Office wall of President Donald Trump?”
Although Trump remains a hugely-divisive figure, his impending return to the White House mirrors a couple of significant relocations in Everton history. In 1892/93: Goodison Park’s first season, Grover Cleveland became the first US President re-elected for a non-consecutive second term while in 2024/25: Goodison Park’s last season, Trump has become only the second US President re-elected for a non-consecutive second term.
Curiously, Everton’s prospective next owner Dan Friedkin, is a Second World War aficionado, who is chair of Project Recover, which uses modern technology to repatriate soldiers missing in action in the Pacific Ocean. The Houston-based billionaire, who is hoping to take control of the Blues before Christmas after striking a deal on September 23 to obtain Farhad Moshiri’s entire 94.1% stake in the club, has played an active role in a couple of films about the conflict, winning a Taurus Award for Best Speciality Stunt when piloting a Spitfire in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 blockbuster Dunkirk, while he directed the 2019 film The Last Vermeer, an historical drama that tells the story of an art maker who swindles millions of dollars from the Nazis.
Graham Sutherland’s commissioned picture of Churchill, which the politician sat for in his second term as Prime Minister, was unveiled to him in front of both Houses of Parliament at Westminster Hall for his 80th birthday in 1954 but was hated by both the subject and his wife with Lady Churchill later admitting she’d had it burned. In contrast though, Trevillion’s more cheerful likeness produced the following year struck the right chord and he was summoned to meet him at the Bernard Sunley Buildings.
Dubbed “a boy from the Blitz” by Churchill when they met because in contrast to many other London children of his age, he wasn’t evacuated, Trevillion recalled his inspiration for the drawing by telling the ECHO: “All I could think of was Winston Churchill with his victory sign and his smile.
“I used to go to bed and say: ‘We’re going to win the war, we’re going to beat Hitler, we’re going to win the war, we’re going to beat Hitler… That’s what I believed all the way through the war, that smiling face.”
- You can click here for full details about the auction of the Winston Churchill portrait.
