We have now got used to seeing portraits of Charles XII in a simple soldier’s uniform and without a wig. Images showing his style of dress reached Sweden from the battlefields in portrait miniatures, painted for example by General Axel Sparre. These caused much surprise in Sweden: they did not show the king as he was expected to appear and were considered odd. Krafft’s portrait was not painted from life, but on the basis of representations by the artist Johan David Swartz.