Portrait of Peter O. Krans (1840-1912)

DateProbably 1900-1905

Attributed to Olof Krans (1838-1916)

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 24 x 18in. (61 x 45.7cm) and Framed: 29 1/4 x 23 9/16in.

Credit LineGift of Merle and Barbara Glick

Object number1997.100.1

DescriptionBust-length portrait of a man turned one-quarter to the right. He wears a black bow tie, black vest, and black coat, with a gold watch chain attached through the top buttonhole of his vest. He has white hair (brushed back from a receding hairline), a long white mustache, and pale blue eyes. The background of the portrait is an overall shaded gray.

The 3-inch, unpainted frame is not original per the July 1997 statement made by donors Merle and Barbara Glick; presumably they added it.
Label TextThis penetrating likeness of the artist's younger brother illustrates the simplified, dimensional, almost sculptural handling of form that characterizes Krans's painting style. It also illustrates the continuation of a portrait painting tradition long after the advent of photography, as well as the heightened realism introduced into painting through the influence of the camera.
A group of Swedish emigrants in search of religious freedom founded the communal settlement of Bishop Hill in west central Illinois in 1846. Olof Krans and his brother, Peter, aged twelve and ten, accompanied their parents to this new home in America in 1850.
ProvenancePurchased by the Glicks (see "Source") Nov. 7, 1981, at the estate sale of Karl and Bertha Hunt of Bishop Hill,IL. Per Glick (see statement of July 1997), "family members could only recall that the Hunts had owned this painting and a signed Krans landscape (also purchased) 'for a long time.' How the Hunts acquired these two paintings is unknown . Their residence was just one block from the center of Bishop Hill."