When Vice President Chester A. Arthur succeeded to the presidency on the death of James A. Garfield, the new president struck many as an emblem of all that was currently wrong with American politics for he was identified as a major player in a "spoils system" that had reduced the civil service to a corruption ridden vehicle for rewarding the political faithful. In the White House, however, Arthur rose above his reputation as a patronage-dispensing hack. In fact, much of the legislation designed to eliminate the very spoil system through which Arthur himself had risen was abolished in his administration.

Arthur's portraitist, the Norwegian painter Ole Peter Hansen Balling, is best known in this country for his portrayal of leading figures in the Northern army during the Civil War.

Ole Peter Hansen Balling (1823-1906)
oil on canvas, 1881
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
gift of Mrs. Harry Newton Blue
NPG.65.25

Enlarged image

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