After teasing the group long enough, De Friez raised her glass and toasted Wilson. A hush fell over the room and the portrait's artist, Ronald Frontin, let the velvet slip from the painting.

Wilson's portrait captures her wearing a Radcliffe academic robe, leaning against a piano, with a bright spray of flowers over her right shoulder.

A ripple of applause ran through the room as the group gazed at the painting, which De Freiz said captures Wilson's "confident, direct, anticipatory expression."

After the drama of the unveiling passed, Wilson gave her remarks to the group as her two young grandchildren laughed and played in front of the speaking podium.

"It makes me glad that another women's portrait will be hanging in the walls of this institution," she said.

"I like the [portrait]. Never before have I had my portrait painted and probably never again," Wilson said later at the reception.

Wilson has been traveling extensively since she left her post as Radcliffe president last spring. She serves on the Presidential appointed internet advisory committee, ICANE, and her work has taken her to Egypt, Berlin and Chile in recent months.