Artist Ronald Frontin was selected by the Senate Commission on Art to paint Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine.  Frontin, a native of Camden, Maine, has devoted his career to rendering Maine landscapes and genre scenes.  “I travel throughout the state painting the people and places that I know best,” he explains. After attending the Philadelphia College of Art, he apprenticed with noted realist painter Nelson Shanks.

Posthumous portraiture presents numerous challenges.  To capture the sitter, Frontin interviewed friends and colleagues of the Margaret Chase Smith to gain a better understanding of her personality and character.  Frontin sought to portray a powerful image of the senator, and depicted her at the height of her career, with her signature pearls and red rose.