Chris Christie's official NJ portrait, most expensive ever, depicts man behind the lectern

He may no longer occupy the governor’s office, but Chris Christie will forever occupy his perch behind the lectern, poised to cajole, to quarrel, to convince, to be heard.

Having fantasized since his first year in office about his likeness hanging in the Statehouse, Christie finally had his official portrait, the most expensive in state history, unveiled Monday evening during a ceremony in Princeton. It depicts Christie at his most dynamic, and often his most imperious.

“I thought that’s the way I’d be remembered,” Christie, a two-term Republican, said Monday of the choice of pose. “And being behind that podium was when I always felt most in command.”

The portrait, painted by an award-winning Australian artist, is the ultimate affirmation for Christie of his rise from one-term Morris County freeholder and failed Assembly candidate to 55th governor of New Jersey — on par with the few dozen other men and one woman who have shaped the history of the Garden State from their perch atop state government.

Christie commissioned the painting for an unprecedented $85,000 in taxpayer money — more than his three predecessors, all Democrats, combined and the highest since Democrat Jim Florio paid $58,000 for his in the 1990s.

The price tag for the portrait was first reported in April by NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey.

In the painting, Christie wears the tie he donned for his first inaugural, and he stands at a lectern subtly engraved with the letters “STTS,” the abbreviation for “Stronger than the Storm,” a reference to the advertising campaign to promote tourism in New Jersey after Superstorm Sandy.

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The unveiling was attended by a who’s who of New Jersey political elite, including many who worked alongside Christie during his time as governor and U.S. attorney for New Jersey, and many from the other side of the aisle who helped him build a reputation as a bipartisan deal-maker. 

Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, spoke at the event, while South Jersey power broker George Norcross sat in the audience nearby. Former Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, Christie’s loyal deputy for eight years, was in attendance, along with New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, a former colleague of Christie’s at the U.S. Attorney’s Office. And first lady Tammy Murphy attended the ceremony, as did former Govs. Jim Florio, Donald DiFrancesco and Jim McGreevey.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, did not attend, because he was scheduled to appear at the same time on "Ask Governor Murphy," a periodic call-in radio program.

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All the guests crowded into Morven, the governor's official residence before it was moved to Drumthwacket in 1982, to listen to six of Christie’s closest former aides and allies heap praise on the former governor for nearly an hour. Christie then took the microphone for some 37 minutes to share anecdotes about the speakers and thank many people in the room, including his wife and four children, for their support.

“It was great for me to see everybody because, to me, the thing that I miss the most about the governorship is them,” Christie said after the event.

Christie last year commissioned the three-quarter-size, oil-on-canvas portrait to be painted by Sydney-based artist Paul Newton, whose other subjects have included the Duke of Edinburgh, pop singer Kylie Minogue and former NBA Commissioner David Stern. 

Newton has won and repeatedly been a finalist for Australia's prestigious Archibald Prize and is an official portraitist for Parliament House, the meeting place in the country's capital of Canberra for members of Parliament. His depiction of Our Lady of the Southern Cross was blessed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI and hangs in St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.

The Christie painting was paid for through a taxpayer-funded transition account of $250,000 that is granted to former governors to pay for staff and office space, as well as services such as the portrait. It's typical for former governors to use that account to pay for their portraits.

The official picture is just the latest example of Christie’s taste for luxury when others are footing the bill. 

As a U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christie was one of five federal prosecutors who the Department of Justice said in a report "exhibited noteworthy patterns of improperly exceeding the government rate" for hotels, such as a $475-a-night stay at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C.

As governor, Christie and his family flew on a private jet lent by billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, enjoyed a luxury vacation in Jordan paid for by the country's king and watched the Dallas Cowboys from the owner's box, courtesy of team owner Jerry Jones. 

“I try to squeeze all the juice out of the orange that I can," Christie told The New York Times in 2014.

But for Christie, the portrait is also about his legacy. Christie, now 56, signaled early into his first term that he viewed the gubernatorial portrait with reverence and was already thinking about how future generations would remember him.

"I’m getting the oil portrait in the Statehouse,'' he said in November 2010, just 11 months after moving into the governor’s office. "So here's the thing — when I bring my grandchildren back to the Statehouse and I show them that painting ... they're going to ask me, 'What did you do, Grandpa, what did you do?’ ”

But Christie will have to wait a while longer for his painting to adorn the halls there. 

Gubernatorial portraits from William Livingston to Jon Corzine used to hang throughout the Statehouse and in the governor's outer office, where Christie would hold news conferences and sometimes point to the portraits of his most recent predecessors as historical references.

The governor's office has temporarily moved to 225 W. State St. as the Statehouse undergoes $300 million worth of renovations that Christie ordered during his final months in office. Some portraits were moved to the first-floor media center there, where news conferences are now held.

It is there, starting in December, where Christie's portrait is due to be hung until renovations are complete, Murphy spokeswoman Alyana Alfaro said. Details are being handled by the curator of the State Museum, she said.

Email: pugliese@northjersey.com