'David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl' (
1628,
Hamburg –
1698,
Stockholm),
Swedish nobleman and
portrait painter who in 1652, at twenty-four years of age, at the request of
Carl Gustaf Wrangel, moved to
Skokloster Castle, from his art studies in the
Netherlands. Between 1654 and 1661 he studied in Italy and visited the courts of both
France and
England. On his return he became entitled
Court painter. He was raised to the nobility in 1674 and became court indendant in 1690.
Mikael Dahl and
David von Krafft as well as his daughter Anna Maria (born 1666) can be found among his pupils.
The
allegoric great hall ceiling
fresco, named ''The Great Deeds of The Swedish Kings'', in the
Swedish House of Knights, made between 1670 and 1675, is considered to be his greatest work. A second version was made in
Drottningholm Palace, the home of the
Swedish Royal Family, in 1695.
[1] The Drottningholm fresco, also became the motive of the 1000th and ever largest postage stamp
[2] by
Czesław Słania, the
Polish postage stamp and banknote engraver.
Ehrenstrahl is also known for his
proposal, in 1694, that:
''- "Art presents
riddles that could not be solved by everyone".''
[3]
References
1. Fresco at Drottningholm castle
2. Stamp showing a crown of immortality
3. About Iconography which contain David's proposal