The new portrait of Roger Williams by East Providence artist Jennifer Gillooly Cahoon is seen on temporary display in the Rhode Island State House library on Dec. 7, 2024 — the last day the Independent Man was available for up-close viewing. (Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
The portraits of governors past line the hallways of the Rhode Island State House. Why not the state’s founder?
The State House lacked a dedicated portrait of Roger Williams, Rhode Island’s pioneer of religious liberty, until Nov. 19, when Secretary of State Gregg Amore unveiled “Roger Williams: Trailblazer of Religious Freedom,” a mixed media painting by East Providence-based artist Jennifer Gillooly Cahoon.
“He actually never sat for a portrait,” Gillooly Cahoon, who also runs HeARTspot ArtCenter and Gallery in East Providence, said in a recent phone interview.
She paraphrased Williams’ feelings on the subject of portraiture: “He felt his time would be better spent doing work for his community rather than sitting for a portrait. So he never took the time to do it. That wasn’t his thing.”
Gillooly Cahoon and Amore have been friends for a long time, the artist said, and the secretary commissioned the portrait with his own dollars and donated the painting to the state.
Faith Chybowski, the secretary’s spokesperson, said in a recent email that Amore is a big fan of Gillooly Cahoon’s style.
“He especially appreciates the vibrancy and liveliness she creates in her work, and how attention-grabbing it is compared to more traditional portrait styles,” Chybowski wrote. “Plus, Jennifer is an East Providence resident, and supporting a local artist was very important to the Secretary. (Townie Pride is pretty big around here!)”
One challenge in painting Williams: No one really knows what he looked like. So Gillooly Cahoon looked at previous renderings by other artists, and also the facial features of people who claim to be Williams’ descendants.
“It’s a constructive face,” the painter said of the final depiction, and described the process of its creation as “like working a puzzle backwards.”
Gillooly Cahoon had one strong, recurring feature among the Williams brood to guide her: “It was all about the jawline,” she said.
The background of the portrait is a collage of copied maps and letters Gillooly Cahoon obtained from the Rhode Island Historical Society. Williams’ own handwriting provides the piece’s background, with the man’s “prominent signature” visible, Gillooly Cahoon said, calling it “kind of a little Easter egg.”
The artist, who is originally from Massachusetts, found a way to connect her journey to becoming a Rhode Island resident to Williams, who trekked to the then-colony in 1636 after being banished from Massachusetts. She used a soil sample from Roger Williams Spring in Rumford — where Gillooly Cahoon first lived after moving to the state and mixed it into paint to create a wash at the bottom of the portrait.
Listening to history podcasts and historical research helped Gillooly Cahoon define the man behind the face. She was surprised at the Puritan’s seemingly un-Purtian stances: “I had always assumed that separation of church and state came from a place where he was not a religious person, and came to find out he was actually more of a self-described zealot,” Gillooly Cahoon said. “He was incredibly religious and argued separation of church and state from that perspective, which I thought was refreshing.”
“It was kind of like taking a history class while I was completing a work of art, which was a lot of fun,” Gillooly Cahoon said.
That’s something Amore, a former history teacher, would likely be pleased to hear. He tried to bring history to all Rhode Islanders when he put his weight behind a $102 million proposal to build a new State Archives building in January, hoping his State House colleagues would let voters decide via ballot measure. The archives didn’t make the ballot this year, but the work is still ongoing, Chybowski said, as the General Assembly’s fiscal 2025 budget included funds for site studies of more possible sites for the State Archives.
For now, Amore has the Williams portrait, which is also looking for a permanent hanging spot in the State House. It’s currently on display in the building’s iconic second floor library until a suitable home is found.
With the Independent Man outside the State House and Roger Williams now residing within, the only Rhode Island icon who’s missing is Anne Hutchinson.
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