Carl R. Krafft: An Artist's Life

by Lal (Gladys Krafft) Davies
New York: Vantage Press, c1982.
ISBN 533-05123-1
LC: 81-90268

 

Preface

It was in October, 1938, when these words of Rudyard Kipling's poem "L'Envoi" were spoken by Reverend Frank D. Adams in the eulogy at my father's funeral.
 

When Earth's last picture is painted, and
   the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colors have faded, and the
   youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it--
   lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall set
   us to work anew!
And those that were good will be happy: They
   shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with
   brushes of comets' hair: . . .
And no one shall work for money,and no one
   shall work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working, and each,
   in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the
   God of Things as They Are!

   October was my father's favorite month for painting nature's color at its peak.
   Carol Rudolph Krafft bowed out of this Earth when the countryside was resplendent. The view from the hill of his graveside overlooked the Des Plaines River valley, a scenic area portrayed so vividly in some of Dad's paintingsThe trees in the distance were painted with various shades and hues of autumnal color.
   I stood by the graveSuddenly, Kipling's poem and the words entered my thoughtsI knew Dad's last picture was paintedHis tubes of paints were twisted and dried. Perhaps now he would be working on a ten-league canvas while sitting on a golden chairNo longer would he have to work for money or fame, and he could continue to draw things as he sees them.
 
 

"L'Envoi" by Rudyard Kipling from Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition. Reprinted by permission of the National Trust and Doubleday & Company, Inc.

http://www.coe.ecu.edu/lsit/kester/krafft/An_Artists_Life/page1.jpg

Early Years

Copyright 1982 Gladys Krafft Davies