David von Krafft
Encyclopedia
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl was a Swedish nobleman and portrait painter.Ehrenstrahl was born in Hamburg. In 1652, at twenty-four years of age, at the request of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, he moved to Skokloster Castle, from his art studies in the Netherlands...
and his successor (in 1698) as painter to the Swedish Royal Court.
Krafft was born in Hamburg. His parents' names are not known, but his mother was a sister of the Swedish court painter David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. David Klöcker (or Klöker) had been born in Hamburg and settled in Sweden in the 1650s, where he was successful as a painter primarily of portraits of members of the royal house and the aristocracy. He was ennobled in 1674, receiving the name Ehrenstrahl. Krafft became an orphan at an early age and came to his uncle's studio in Stockholm in 1675 as his assistant and apprentice.
In 1684 Krafft received an annual grant from Queen Ulrika Eleonora the Elder
Ulrike Eleonora of Denmark
Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark was the Queen consort of Sweden as the spouse of King Charles XI of Sweden.The name Ulrike is a Danish version of the name; in Swedish she is called Ulrika Eleonora den äldre, which in English means Ulrica Eleanor the Elder), to distinguish her from her daughter, the...
for a journey to Italy through Denmark and Germany. The purpose was first to visit the various princely courts to paint the Queen's relatives to supplement her portrait collection, and later to continue to Italy for further studies. He arrived in Italy in 1687, spent a year in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, three years in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, and one year in Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
. He later traveled to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and was awarded an increased grant for going to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1694. He finally returned to Stockholm and his uncle’s studio in 1696.
After Ehrenstrahl's death in 1698, Krafft was appointed his successor as court painter
Court painter
A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or noble family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Especially in the late Middle Ages, they were often given the office of valet de chambre...
. His main task was to paint representative portraits of the King, Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...
. His last portrait of the King before his departure for the war in 1700 was an equestrian portrait showing the King wearing a wig and an ermine cape. In the absence of the King, his main employer was the Dowager Queen Hedvig Eleonora; about a hundred portraits of her by Krafft are known.
Krafft's later portraits of Charles, which are among the most well-known and reproduced, show the King in the simpler attire he adopted during the campaigns: bareheaded and wearing a simple blue uniform, except for subtle details similar to that of the other soldiers in the army. In this case, Krafft's image was dependent on a type of portrait that had been developed in accordance with the directions of Charles himself, and first established with the 1706-07 portrait by the artist Johan David Swartz, a former student of Krafft who had been present in the camp at Altranstädt
Altranstädt
Altranstädt is a village in Saxony, Germany, now part of the Markranstädt district of Leipzig. The village is historically famous for two treaties that were concluded there, the Treaty of Altranstädt and the Treaty of Altranstädt ....
with the King. This realistic but forceful image of the King broke with current conventions for royal portraiture and Krafft adapted the type inherited from Swartz and produced numerous copies fom 1707 and 1717. When Charles XII had his residence in Lund in 1717, Krafft again got the chance to paint him live. As with the earlier portrait, based on the Altranstädt painting by Swartz, the Lund portrait was produced in many copies by Krafft and his followers.
Krafft also painted many of Charles's generals. His largest painting is the Hildebrand family portrait from 1713 (at Nynäs Manor, Södermanland), depicting the merchant and industrialist Henrik Jacob Hildebrand and his wife Anna Sofia Amya on the occasion of their 50th anniversary surrounded by their over twenty children and grandchildren, as well as some deceased relatives in paintings on the wall in the background.
Besides his many portraits, the major portion of his production, Krafft painted an altarpiece for Kalmar Cathedral
Kalmar Cathedral
Kalmar Cathedral is in the city of Kalmar in Småland in south east Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea.The new city of Kalmar built on Kvarnholmen around the mid-1700s. The transfer from the old town was largely completed 1658th The new, fortified town was planned after the current renaissance ideals...
showing the descent from the Cross
Descent from the Cross
The Descent from the Cross , or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion . In Byzantine art the topic became popular in the 9th century, and in the West from the...
(1712).
Krafft was ennobled in 1719, receiving the name von Krafft, and awarded the title of hovintentendent (court intendant) in 1720.