Eric Enstrom created this photograph, called “Grace”, in 1918. Neither the photographer nor the subject knew that one day it will become famous world over. The photograph depicts an old man sitting on a dining table saying thanksgiving prayer before beginning to eat a simple meal. The old man has big white mustache and beard. He is touching his hands, with interlocked fingers, to his bowing forehead in traditional Christian manner. On table lay a loaf of bread, a bowl of soup, a knife and a bible on which the man has set his glasses.
"Grace" by Eric Enstrom.
This photograph was taken in Enstrom’s studio in the mining town of Bovey, Minnesota. The man appearing in the photograph is Charles Wilden who had walked into Enstrom’s studio to meet him. “There was something about the old gentleman’s face that immediately impressed me. I saw that he had a kind face… there weren’t any harsh lines in it,” Enstrom said in recalling the 1918 visit of Charles Wilden to his studio. He then requested the man to pose for a photograph.
In 2002 this photograph was designated as the state photograph of the Minnesota state.
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