'Not Lake Louise': Winston Churchill's mislabelled painting of Emerald Lake heads for auction

It's in rough shape and was mislabelled, but a painting by an iconic former British prime minister of Emerald Lake is about the hit the auction block.

"In 1929 he was on a cross-Canada tour, a speaking and writing tour, and one of things he did was he fell in love with our mountains," Calgary historian David Finch told The Homestretch, describing Winston Churchill.

"He spent time at Lake Louise, at Banff and at Emerald Lake, a place he called Lake Emerald."

But there's a problem. The painting has "Lake Louise Canada" in the bottom left corner.

"I did some photo research and it's very, very much not Lake Louise," Finch said.

"There is a very distinctive mountain in the middle left, and it's Emerald Peak. There is no doubt about it. Theyare now selling it as a painting of 'Lake Emerald,' as Churchill called it."

Sotheby's will auction the painting on Tuesday and Finch says it likely won't go cheap.

"It's a little rough, there is no doubt about it. It's going as is and $15,000 might get it for you, but I'm wondering if it might not be more like 15,000 because how often does a painting like this come out of the woodwork so to speak?"

Finch says the former prime minister was captured by the beauty of the region.

"Churchill wrote back to his wife and said, 'I want to bring you to Canada for many reasons but in particular to Lake Emerald because it's so beautiful here.'"

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With files from The Homestretch