Raimondo’s Gubernatorial Portrait Unveiled
GoLocalProv News Team
Raimondo’s Gubernatorial Portrait Unveiled
Raimondo was Rhode Island’s first female governor when she was sworn in January of 2015.
Today, Raimondo serves as President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Commerce.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) announced in May of 2022 that Raimondo selected Patricia Watwood of New York to paint her official gubernatorial portrait.
Watwood was paid $50,000 by the State of Rhode Island.
SEE Gubernatorial Portraits Below
About the Artist
Watwood said about her selection, according to RISCA, “It is a great honor to be selected to portray Rhode Island’s first woman governor. In creating this work of art for the State House, I look forward to celebrating her inspiring service, and show young women, girls, and the people of Rhode Island that there is a place in leadership at the highest level for all of us."
Previously, Watwood’s commissioned portraits include two mayors of St. Louis for City Hall and two historical portraits of pioneering women, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Ida B. Wells, both in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. Other institutions that have commissioned her work include Weill Cornell Medical Center, St. Louis University, and Washington University. Originally from St. Louis, she has created portraits for many families in the St. Louis area as well as around her current home, New York.
Watwood earned her MFA with honors from New York Academy of Art and studied with Jacob Collins as a founding member of the Water Street Atelier. Watwood has produced instructional DVDs including “Creating Portraits from Life,” with Streamline Art Video, has been a professor of drawing at New York Academy of Art.
Rhode Island Gubernatorial Portraits, 1775-2015
Nicholas Cooke
Years in Office 1775-1778
William Greene
Years in Office 1778-1786
Arthur Fenner
Years in Office 1790-1805
James Fenner
Years in Office 1807-1811
William Jones
Years in Office 1811-1817
Nehemiah R. Knight
Years in Office 1817-1821
William C. Gibbs
Years in Office 1821-1824
James Fenner
Years in Office 1824-1831
Lemuel H. Arnold
Years in Office 1831-1833
John B. Francis
Years in Office 1833-1838
William Sprague III
Years in Office 1838-1839
Samuel Ward King
Years in Office 1839-1843
Thomas Dorr
Years in Office 1839-1843 (extralegal)
James Fenner
Years in Office 1843-1845
Byron Diman
Years in Office 1846-1847
Elisha Harris
Years in Office 1847-1849
Henry B. Anthony
Years in Office 1849-1851
Philip Allen
Years in Office 1851-1853
Francis M. Dimond
Years in Office 1853-1854
William W. Hoppin
Years in Office 1854-1857
Elisha Dyer
Years in Office 1857-1859
Thomas G. Turner
Years in Office 1859-1860
William Sprague IV
Years in Office 1860-1863
William C Cozzens
Year in Office 1863
James Y. Smith
Years in Office 1863-1867
Ambrose Everett Burnside
Years in Office 1867-1869
Seth Padelford
Years in Office 1869-1873
Henry Howard
Years in Office 1873-1875
Henry Lippitt
Years in Office 1875-1877
Charles C. Van Zandt
Years in Office 1877-1880
Alfred H. Littlefield
Years in Office 1880-1883
Augustus O. Bourn
Years in Office 1883-1885
John W. Davis
Years in Office 1887-1888
Royal C. Taft
Years in Office 1888-1889
Herbert W. Ladd
Years in Office 1889-1890
John W. Davis
Years in Office 1890–1891
Herbert W. Ladd
Years in Office 1891–1892
D. Russell Brown
Years in Office 1892–1895
Charles W. Lippitt
Years in Office 1895-1897
Elisha Dyer, Jr.
Years in Office 1897-1900
William Gregory
Years in Office 1900-1901
Charles D. Kimball
Years in Office 1901-1903
Lucius F. C. Garvin
Years in Office 1903-1905
George H. Utter
Years in Office 1905-1907
James H. Higgins
Years in Office 1907-1909
Aram J. Pothier
Years in Office 1907-1915
R. Livingston Beeckman
Years in Office 1915-1921
Emery J. San Souci
Years in Office 1921-1923
William S. Flynn
Years in Office 1923-1925
Aram J. Pothier
Years in Office 1925-1928
Norman S. Case
Years in Office 1928-1933
Theodore Francis Green
Years in Office 1933-1937
Robert E. Quinn
Years in Office 1937-1939
William Henry Vanderbilt
Years in Office 1939-1941
J. Howard McGrath
Years in Office 1941-1945
John Orlando Pastore
Years in Office 1945-1950
John S. McKiernan
Years in Office 1950-1951
Dennis J. Roberts
Years in Office 1951-1959
Christopher Del Sesto
Years in Office 1959-1961
John A. Notte, Jr.
Years in Office 1961-1963
John Hubbard Chafee
Years in Office 1963-1969
Frank Licht
Years in Office 1969-1973
Philip W Noel
Years in Office 1973-1977
J. Joseph Garrahy
Years in Office 1977-1985
Edward D. DiPrete
Years in Office 1985-1991
Bruce Sundlun
Years in Office 1991-1995
Lincoln C. Almond
Years in Office 1995-2003
Donald Carcieri
Years in Office 2003-2011
Lincoln Chafee
Years in Office 2011-2015
