Per Krafft the Elder

Per Krafft the Elder ( born January 16, 1724 in Arboga, † November 7, 1793 in Stockholm) was a Swedish painter.

He was in Copenhagen until 1747, a student of Johan Henrik Scheffel ( 1690-1781 ) and then by Carl Gustaf Pilo.

By Pilo he met the Finance Minister Otto Thott know, for whom he produced several portraits. 1755 Thott sent him with a commission to Paris, where they were 200 paintings by artists such as Rigaud, Mignard Largillière and copy. There he was a student of Alexander Roslin, but more it attracted the works of Chardin and Greuze to.

In Roslin's recommendation he was in September 1762 at the Academy of Arts to Bayreuth professor of painting. Seven hours per week ( three in life drawing after living model with muscle teaching and four painting lessons ), he moved into a salary of 640 fl Fr. There he painted Elisabeth Friederike Sophie of Brandenburg- Bayreuth.

After the death of the Margrave Friedrich February 1763 he stayed in Bayreuth and painted a life-size portrait of the Minister Friedrich Wilhelm Ellrodt. The town of Bayreuth gave it to King Ferdinand of Bulgaria. After 1764/65 studying in Italy, he returned again back to Bayreuth.

In 1767 he became court painter of Stanisław August Poniatowski in Warsaw.

After his return to Stockholm in 1768 he became a member in 1773 and a professor at the Kungliga academies för de fria konsterna and even painted over 100 portraits.

In 1775 he married Maria Wilhelmina Ekebom. Her son Per Krafft the Younger was portrait and history painter and her daughter Wilhelmina Krafft (1778-1828) miniature painter.