George W Bush exhibition: Five artistic politicians

Former US president George W Bush has unveiled portraits of 24 world leaders he met while in office, as part of an exhibition of his paintings that opens on Saturday in Dallas. Talking to his daughter Jenna Bush Hager on NBC’s Today show, Bush said that he was inspired to take up painting after reading a Winston Churchill essay, Painting as a Pastime.

Credit: BBC.CO.UK

LISBON - He embraced his artistic side after leaving office in 2009, and says he told his instructor: "There's a Rembrandt trapped in this body. Your job is to unleash him." Can any other politicians rival him for artistic talent? Here are five contenders.

Winston Churchill

He won the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values" – but Churchill’s real passion lay in painting. The former British Prime Minister won an amateur prize in 1925, and submitted canvases to exhibitions in Paris under the pseudonym Charles Morin. 

Jimmy Carter

While running for office, Jimmy Carter – US president between 1977 and 1981 – admitted: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." The former peanut farmer did not always use the words of a politician.

Dwight D Eisenhower

The former US president took up painting in 1948 when he was almost 60, inspired by his friend Churchill. But by his death 21 years later he had completed over 250 works. 

Vladimir Putin

Not happy simply to project an image of outdoorsy machismo, the Russian president has a softer side. After shooting a tiger with a tranquiliser dart and firing a crossbow at a whale from a speedboat, Putin rounded off 2010 by singing a rendition of Louis Armstrong’s Blueberry Hill. 

Usilo Bambang Yudhoyono

The Indonesian president serenaded Putin with a birthday song at the Apec summit in October 2013. But Yudhoyono has musical talents that extend beyond impromptu singalongs: he was in a band in his youth, and has released three pop albums in office.