James K Polk
Limited Edition Print
Buy Me!
Each print is an 8x10, signed and numbered first edition of 20. Printed on German Etching Archival Fine Art paper.
About the Man
Certain presidents are world famous, some are known well to those of us that grew up in the US, then there are those that, for various reasons, were quite forgettable. To most people, James K Polk may be one of those presidents.
For each president I paint, I spend time researching and reading about the man. James K Polk is the first of these “lesser knowns” that make me want to buy a biography dedicated to him. Here’s why: he made a list of what he wanted to accomplish in office… and guess what, he did it.
He was quite the stiff, socially inept and introverted but out of necessity he forced himself to mingle (sounds like me). Other than his great friendship with Andrew Jackson, he was a relatively unknown politician outside Washington. He barely won the election of 1844 with 50% of the votes and during his entire time in office, he fought for what he wanted to accomplish. He was a micro-manager who faced stiff opposition from all sides, including the public. He left the office weak and feeble, he retired to his home in Tennessee where he died three weeks later at the age of 53.
The quote I used from Polk is “with me, it is emphatically true that the presidency ‘is no bed of roses’.” Harry Truman said of the man some 100 years later, “A great president. Said what he intended to do and did it.”
