(NETWORK IN) Vice President Pence and alumni of his administration have returned to Indiana for the unveiling of his official state portrait:
Governors all sit for a formal portrait — Pence will join his seven most recent predecessors in the governor’s reception area next week. The vice president thanked Hoosiers for electing him, and said “words can’t describe the honor” of serving the state.
The portrait depicts Pence on the edge of his desk, with a family photo and Bible to one side. On the other side is a stack of law books — Pence says that’s a tribute to his father, who attended law school for semester before falling in love with the woman who would become his wife. Pence’s mother joined the vice president’s wife Karen, the Pences’ daughter Audrey, Governor Eric Holcomb and First Lady Janet Holcomb on stage for the statehouse ceremony.
Pence and several former staffers wore the same tie for the ceremony that he wears in the portrait. Karen Pence designed the blue-and-gold tie modeled on the state flag.
Pence becomes the third vice president with a statehouse portrait. The portrait of Thomas Hendricks, Grover Cleveland’s vice president, hangs in the House Ways and Means Committee room. A second Hendricks portrait, painted by Hoosier artist T.C. Steele for Indiana’s centennial, resides in the governor’s inner office, along with the portrait of Indiana’s other governor-turned-veep, Thomas Marshall.
