The sable brush in the iron fist

What do Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Helen Clark and now Vladimir Putin have in common? They are all politicians who have painted, or in Clark’s case, drawn. Like Clark, Putin the painter’s work has aroused some suspicion as to whether it is actually by his hand. One critic was bold enough to remark (that’s bold in the anonymous sense of the word), "It looks as if it was painted by a sentimental woman. It is too sweet; you can feel it in the brushwork and the palette. The core theme is feminine too.”