An original print of famous stolen photo on display at local museum

An original print of the famous photograph of Winston Churchill at the Fairmont Château Laurier in Ottawa has been mysteriously replaced by a fake, but the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 currently has an original print of the photo on display.

Dan Conlin is the curator at the museum. He says the photograph, known as the Roaring Lion, is the star of the exhibition titled: The World of Yousuf Karsh: A Private Essence.

“This is a big photo, almost life-size, of Churchill glaring back at you from Dec. 30, 1941, and people really find this photo moving,” Conlin told CityNews. 

I will be discussing Yousuf Karsh's famous portrait of Winston Churchill, recently stolen from Ottawa's Chateau Laurier, on Global TV tomorrow morning at 7:20am; and on News 95.7 Radio on Wednesday at 10:30am. See the original @Pier21 until Oct. 16! pic.twitter.com/O1epu3EMix

— Dan Conlin (@conlin_dan) August 30, 2022

Karsh decreed that upon his death that no more prints would be made from his negatives, Conlin explained.

“So the existing original prints that he made from his work are really precious,” Conlin said. 

“That's why it's so amazing for us to have 110 of them in Halifax and so sad that one of the original portraits was stolen.”

Conlin says the story behind the Winston Churchill photograph is fascinating. 

Conlin says Churchill was visiting North America just after the attack on Pearl Harbour in an attempt to rally more support in North America, and he had just delivered one of his famous speeches in the Canadian House of Commons. 

After the speech, the then-Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, invited Churchill to join him for drinks in the Speaker's office. 

Upon entering the office, Churchill was greeted by tripods, lights and Yousuf Karsh. 

Furious, Churchill slammed his fist upon the desk asking why no one had told him about the photographer. 

But after a glass of whiskey and lighting a cigar, a calmer Churchill agreed to allow Karsh to take one single photograph.

The story goes, that after failing to convince Churchill to douse the cigar, Karsh leaned forward, snatched the cigar from Churchill, and at that moment clicked the shutter creating the world-renowned photograph seen today. 

Conlin says Karsh had this uncanny ability to capture the essence of a subject. 

Following the original snap of Churchill, Karsh quickly made things up to the United Kingdom's Prime Minster, and Churchill agreed to take one more photo, and this time he met Karsh with a smile, Conlin explained. 

“But everybody likes the defiant one,” Conlin said. 

Yousuf Karsh first arrived to Canada in Halifax in 1924 as a 15-year-old refugee fleeing the Armenian genocide but quickly moved to Sherbrooke, Quebec to live with his uncle who was a portrait photographer. 

Karsh went on to become a prominent photographer creating portraits of everyone from Mother Teresa to Ernest Hemingway. 

But it was the Churchill photo that really propelled his international career, Conlin said. 

“You'll see that portrait appears in every biography; everything ever written about Churchill has that picture,” Conlin said. 

The photograph today even covers England's five pound note. 

Karsh donated the famous photo to Château Laurier, where he had both an apartment and studio.

And Conlin, who used to work in the hotel, describes being in his presence as a memory he treasures deeply. 

“As a little 20-year-old radio producer and you meet Karsh in the elevator, he would make you feel like you were the most important person in the world,” Conlin recalled. 

“He had this twinkle in his eye and [could] strike up this instant rapport, and that was so key to his work – everybody from the king of Saudi Arabia to a Ukrainian farmer farming grain in the prairies – he could really bond and create this relationship with people.”

The 110 photo exhibition of Yousuf Karsh's work will be displayed at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 until Oct. 16. 

Conlin also said, for those interested, on Sept. 22 the museum is hosting a panel discussion on the relationship between Karsh and King – a relationship that led to the photograph of Churchill. 

The museum website reads “delve into the relationship between a politician who campaigned against immigration from the 'Orient' and a refugee fleeing a genocide from that very region, who would have been refused entry to Canada by virtue of his place of birth had a relative not already settled here.”