Carl Krafft (1884 – 1938)
Krafft, a painter from Chicago, studied at both the Art Institute and Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. After heading to South Central Missouri with his studio mates to paint in nature, in he became a founding member and served as president of the Society of the Ozark Painters. He was dubbed as the “painter poet of the Ozarks” in a feature article from Chicago Fine Arts. He stylized the shapes in the landscape and used a bright, exaggerated and almost Modernist color palette. He continued to paint industrial scenes of Chicago and the dreamy, atmospheric Ozarks for over two decades.
Krafft was well-known in his time as a teacher, a creative leader, and an award winning painter, including such honors as a solo exhibition at the Art Institute in 1920, the Logan Medal in the Art Institute’s “Chicago and Vicinity” exhibition in 1920, and a gold medal in the Allied Artists of America show in New York in 1925.