Here's a quote from the article we found on Park Rapids Enterprise.com asking the question Who was that man in the painting?
Turns out he is a man of mystery, of sorts, if we define mystery as something we don’t know much about. His name was Charles Wilden and two historians of the photo say nobody knows where Wilden came from, where he was born or where he died; wherever it was, it apparently was without any family. The man behind the giant, black-shrouded camera was a Swedish immigrant who was in his early 40s when he asked Wilden to pose in his studio in Bovey, Minn., between Grand Rapids and Hibbing in the middle of the state’s Iron Range and timber country.
That was about 1920. In 1926, Wilden signed over all his rights to the photo to Enstrom for $5, according to a receipt from Enstrom’s family, said Lilah Crowe, executive director of the Itasca County Historical Society in Grand Rapids where the camera and the receipt and several copies of the photo are held.SeattlePi.com has an article about this painting or print and talks about how it got to so many kitchen walls in America. Rhoda Nyberg was the lady who painted the black and white print with heavy oil.
Nyberg's coloring was used on the prints by Augsburg Publishing, which bought the rights to "Grace" in the early 1950s, according to her son, Kent Nyberg. The colored version of the photo was designated the official picture of the state of Minnesota in 2002.Ms. Nyberg passed away on February 21, 2012. Prayers be with her family.
You can read more about the painting and about the artist over at her website.
One thing is for sure, they should make a photobook about this painting!
Can we find "GRACE" on YouTube? Oh yeah. You can find anything on YouTube.
Here's a video of an earthquake in Oklahoma on November 5, 2011. You'll notice something familiar on the wall past the shaking chandelier.
http://youtu.be/sXVhAfcbvsc
