George Walker Bush
George Bush Jr., no doubt, one of the most debated politicians of our time, is fond of painting. When the controversial president of the United States quitted brandishing the weapon and took a brush in his hands the world could catch a break. In 2012 two self portraits by Bush were posted on the Internet after the e-mail of one of his relatives had been hacked.
Busch began his exercises in painting from his beloved dog Barney and other animals. At the same time among the pictures hackers exposed on the Internet are his self portrait where the 43 President depicted himself from the back taking the shower and his legs in the bath. Art critics estimated these pieces as the works having no artistic value. The artist continues his work regardless their assessments.
Prince Charles
Adolf Hitler
It is interesting, that most of the paintings by Hitler included placid landscapes, buildings and still-lifes, without the slightest hint (at least, at the first glance) of the monster he revealed later. We could only guess how the modern world history could have changed if the professors of the Fine Arts School in Vienna had been well disposed to the young applicant.
Winston Churchill
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Before coming to the the official office of the President of the United States, the Oval Office, he had occupied the post of the President at Columbia University and had watched the artist Thomas E. Stephens working at the portrait of his wife Mamie Doud. That time Dwight D. Eisenhower started interesting in arts. Later Stephens presented his friend, a politician, a kit for painting, though the President had never been serious about his exercises in painting.
Jimmy Carter
His hobbies included wood engraving and winemaking, however, the artworks by the thirty ninth President of the United States are sold for up to $ 250,000. All the sales revenues are transferred to the account of the Carter Center Fund whose goal is to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering, including helping improve the quality of life for people in more than 80 countries. It also leads disease eradication efforts.
Edi Rama
On the contrary to the leading political personalities on the list the Prime Minister of Albania had been an artist before he was engaged in political activities. His art works were exhibited in Paris, Berlin and Brazil. In 2002, when he was the mayor of Tirana, he exploited his sense of the beauty to make his city comfortable and nice; that time the city experienced hard time. Some buildings were painted orange by his order.
When Rama decided to make some other buildings colorful he faced resistance of some states members of EU. Though, he denied all the arguments claiming that, when colors were all around, the people would be inspired by the wind of changes… They would stop leaving litter in the streets and start paying taxes.
General Francisco Franco
Like Churchill fascist dictator Franco was engaged in painting as a means to relax from the stresses of governing and according to his grandson: "He would regularly lock himself in his study after dinner to spend time painting."
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria made sketches of the Royal Family members she never wanted the public to see. When they leaked to a journalist Her Majesty filed a lawsuit against him to stop publication of the drawings. It was one of the first cases of Public Person vs Mass Media.
Ulysses S Grant
Grant began painting when he was a cadet at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. A lot of his paintings survived till nowadays. He also studied under Romantic artist Robert Walter Weir, a painter of the Hudson River School.
Grant mainly depicted landscaped and horses in his watercolors.
