Yousuf Karsh’s 1941 portrait of Winston Churchill, The Roaring Lion, is one of the most widely reproduced images in the history of photography and became an icon of the British fight against Nazi Germany and fascism. The portrait, taken moments after Churchill’s impassioned “Some chicken! Some neck!” speech, echoed the country’s dogged determination throughout World War II and launched the career of Karsh, who went on to photograph other eminent sitters and become one of the most important photographers of the 20th century.
As Karsh recounted of the session with the British Prime Minister:
In 1941, Churchill visited first Washington and then Ottawa. The Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, invited me to be present. After the electrifying speech, I waited in the Speaker’s Chamber where, the evening before, I had set up my lights and camera. The Prime Minister, arm-in-arm with Churchill and followed by his entourage, started to lead him into the room. I switched on my floodlights; a surprised Churchill growled, ‘What’s this, what’s this?’ No one had the courage to explain. I timorously stepped forward and said, ‘Sir, I hope I will be fortunate enough to make a portrait worthy of this historic occasion.’ He glanced at me and demanded, ‘Why was I not told?’ When his entourage began to laugh, this hardly helped matters for me. Churchill lit a fresh cigar, puffed at it with a mischievous air, and then magnanimously relented. ‘You may take one.’ Churchill’s cigar was ever present. I held out an ashtray, but he would not dispose of it. I went back to my camera and made sure that everything was all right technically. I waited; he continued to chomp vigorously at his cigar. I waited. Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever so respectfully, I said, ‘Forgive me, sir,’ and plucked the cigar out of his mouth. By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph.
Churchill's 1941 meeting with Mackenzie King and FDR immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ultimately led to North America's involvement in World War II and changed the course of history.
The Roaring Lion appeared on the cover of the 21 May 1945 issue of Life Magazine and later appeared on the £5 note issued by the Bank of England. A printing from the original negative hangs on the wall in the Speaker’s Chamber of the House of Commons of Canada, where the image was taken. It remains to this day one of the most recognizable photographic portraits ever produced.
