Best remembered as the prime minister who led Britain during World War II, Winston Churchill was also an accomplished amateur artist who painted to cope with depression (or as he termed it, "the black dog"). He admired Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet and Henri Matisse, writing, "They have brought back to the pictorial art a new draught of joie de vivre."

Inspired by these artists, Churchill typically painted outdoors, using vivid colors and energetic brushstrokes. This painting depicts a beach in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, on France’s Atlantic coast. It centers on the Casino La Pergola, an important example of Cubist architecture by Robert Mallet-Stevens that still stands today.