Per Krafft the Elder (1724 – 1793)

• Was a Swedish portraitist.
• Per Krafft was born in Arboga, and studied in Uppsala.
• From 1739 he was for several years a student of portrait painter Johan Henrik Scheffel in Stockholm.
• In 1745 Krafft went to Copenhagen, where he came under Carl Gustaf Pilo's influence.
• In 1749, Per Krafft went to Skåne and painted Governor Wilhelm Lindenstedts portrait in baroque style.
• Krafft had a patron in Denmark then Finance Minister Otto Thott, to whom he copied several hundred family portraits at various Danish castle, which was collected in Gavnø.
• In 1755 he traveled to Paris, where he became a student of Chardin.
• He later became a student of Alexander Roslin, a professor at Bayreuth and court painter to Stanisław August Poniatowski of Poland.
• In 1762 Krafft was appointed as professor at the Margrave of Bayreuth's Academy of Art.
• For the Polish king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, Krafft was called to Warsaw, where he painted in 1767–68 a pictor regius with a variety of portraits for the Polish court. 

• In 1768 Krafft returned to Stockholm after 21 years abroad.

• He was the father of the painters Per Krafft the Younger and Wilhelmina Krafft.

• He died in Stockholm. 

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