David von Krafft

[1] David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl 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.

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.

[1] 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.

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 from 1707 and 1717.

Besides his many portraits which were the major portion of his production, Krafft painted a large altarpiece for Kalmar Cathedral showing the Descent from the Cross (1712).