George W. Bush’s Gallery of World Leaders

What do you think of former President Bush and his paintings of leaders from around the world?

 
George W. Bush unveiled his paintings of world leaders on Friday during an interview on NBC’s “Today” show with his daughter Jenna Bush Hager. The paintings form a new exhibit called “The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy” at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas.

And of course, everyone is now a critic. The Christian Monitor said the Vladimir Putin portrait was “a bit cartoon-like” but the BBC says the portraits shows Putin as “poker-faced… enigmatic and unreadable.” Bush himself told a story about Putin dissing his dog. Upon meeting the Bush dog, Barney, a Scottish terrier, Putin said “You call it a dog?” The following year, when Bush and his wife visited Putin, the Russian leader introduced his own dog, a “huge hound, obviously much bigger than a Scottish terrier, and Putin looks at me and says, ‘Bigger, stronger and faster than Barney.'” Bush said he didn’t react, but thought that anyone who thinks like that — my dog is bigger than your dog — is an interesting character, and Bush thinks the encounter influenced the painting.

Other leaders in the collection include Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair; France’s former president, Nicolas Sarkozy; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi; former South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak; German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; and Pakistani president, Hamid Karzai.