Portrait of Governor Chafee unveiled at State House
By News Staff
The official portrait of former Governor Lincoln Chafee was presented at the State House Thursday morning, but not present was Chafee himself.
He had said previously he didn’t want to take attention away from the first weeks of Governor Raimondo’s administration.
Artist Julie Gearan and representatives from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts attended the ceremony in the State Room.
Gearan was selected from 124 artists in April as part of a national search.
State law requires that a portrait be commissioned for each Governor before he or she leaves office for a fee of $15,000.
The painting will now be hung by the Rhode Island Department of Administration among other gubernatorial portraits in the State House.
Gearan, a Providence resident, teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University. Previously, she has taught at the University of Rhode Island, the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago and at Indiana University campuses in Florence, Italy and Bloomington, Indiana,.
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