AUGUSTA (AP) – More than 15 months after former Gov. Angus King’s official portrait was unveiled at the State House, it has been quietly replaced.

Another view of King, by the same artist, went up over the weekend.

There was no ceremony, according to the director of the Maine State Museum, Joseph Phillips.

The switch in the third floor rotunda of the State House was attributed to a request by Stephanie Werner, the German artist who created both works.

“Stephanie felt strongly that the second painting was a much truer likeness and better executed. For those reasons, she suggested that it would be a better painting to hang in the State House, and others agreed,” King said in a statement distributed by the state museum.

“In reality, it is more characteristic of me at work in my office. The painting that has been in the State House for the past year or so will become the portrait that my family and I will keep at home,” King said.

In late December 2003, close to 100 former colleagues, friends and members of his family gathered at the State House for the unveiling of King’s first official portrait. That event was held without fanfare or broad notice to the media.

Saturday’s replacement event was even more unheralded.

“There was absolutely no extra cost to the state to exchange the two paintings,” Phillips said in the museum statement. “I personally like the new portrait much better, as it captures not only his appearance, but his warm personality.”

According to the museum, a State House portrait collection began in 1836 with the acquisition of a portrait of George Washington. Portraits of Maine governors are hung in rotation. The museum said governors leaving office may select a portrait artist with the advice and coordination of the Maine Arts Commission.

The original King portrait by Werner, painted during the summer of 2003, showed him wearing a sport coat and seated informally on a chair.

According to the museum statement, Werner also created an oil sketch of King as a gift to his family while she painted the original portrait.

She continued working on the sketch when she returned to Maine to visit King and his family in 2004 and completed it as a new portrait, showing King in an informal pose, wearing a blue shirt and light trousers.

King was first elected governor in 1994 as an independent, winning 35 percent of the vote after a largely self-financed campaign. In 1998 he won another term, capturing nearly 59 percent of the vote.

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