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Sarah Polk

Sarah Polk

Artist: George Peter Alexander Healy
Date of Work: 1846
Credit: James K. Polk Ancestral Home Collection

Sarah Polk posed in the White House for this portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1846. The artist captured her tastes. She favored silks, satins, and velvet, like the claret-colored velvet example she wears here. Designs for her dresses were those current in the Paris of Louis-Philippe.

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