You’ve probably seen the face. It’s everywhere—on bookmarks, in hospital hallways, and plastered across social media feeds every time someone mentions a near-death experience. The image, widely known as the prince of peace photo, isn't actually a photograph at all. It’s a painting. But the story behind how an eight-year-old girl named Akiane Kramarik created this hyper-realistic portrait of Jesus is, honestly, kind of wild.
Most people recognize the image because of a boy named Colton Burpo. He’s the kid from the "Heaven is for Real" book and movie. After a brush with death during surgery, Colton started describing things he saw in heaven. His parents showed him dozens of religious icons and paintings, trying to find one that matched what he saw. He rejected all of them. Then, he saw Akiane’s painting on a TV screen. He stopped cold. That’s the guy, he basically said. From that moment, the prince of peace photo became the unofficial "real" face of Jesus for millions of people around the world.
The Child Prodigy Behind the Canvas
Akiane Kramarik wasn't raised in a religious household. Her parents were atheists. They didn't talk about God. They didn't go to church. They didn't have a Bible in the house. So, when Akiane started talking about seeing visions and hearing a voice at age four, it kinda freaked them out. She started sketching. Then she started painting. By age eight, she sat down to paint the "Prince of Peace."
She needed a model. Finding the right face proved impossible for months. She looked at hundreds of people. She prayed. Then, one day, a carpenter walked to their front door looking for work. Akiane saw him and knew. He had the features she had seen in her mind.
The process was grueling. She worked for forty hours a week. She was eight. Think about that for a second. While most kids are struggling to stay inside the lines of a coloring book, she was mixing oils to capture the exact translucency of human skin and the depth of an eye. The finished product was so sophisticated that many people refused to believe a child did it. They thought her parents were pulling a massive PR stunt. They weren't.
The Disappearance and the $10,000 Mistake
Here is the part of the story that most people totally miss. The original painting actually went missing for years. It wasn't just sitting in a museum somewhere being admired. After Akiane finished it, her agent at the time reportedly sold it without her full understanding, and then it got caught up in a series of legal battles.
👉 See also: The Real Story Behind I Can Do Bad All by Myself: From Stage to Screen
At one point, it was accidentally shipped to a warehouse and basically forgotten. For nearly twenty years, the world only knew the prince of peace photo through low-quality prints and digital copies. The original masterpiece—the one with the actual texture and the specific lighting Akiane labored over—was locked away in a dark vault. It stayed there because of a series of contract disputes and ownership rows that felt more like a corporate thriller than a spiritual journey.
The family eventually got it back, but not after a lot of heartbreak. When the painting finally resurfaced and was sold to a private collector for $850,000 in 2019, it made international headlines. Imagine losing something you created as a child, something that changed your entire family's worldview, only to have it reappear decades later as one of the most valuable pieces of religious art in modern history.
Why the Image Looks Different to Everyone
If you look closely at the prince of peace photo, the lighting is weird. Not "bad" weird, but intentional. Akiane painted one side of the face in bright light and the other in deep shadow. She said this represented the light and dark aspects of life, or the dual nature of humanity and divinity.
Depending on where you stand in a room, the expression seems to shift. Sometimes he looks like he’s smiling. Other times, he looks incredibly somber. This isn't an accident. It’s a technique called sfumato, famously used by Da Vinci, where colors and tones blend into each other so there are no harsh outlines. For an eight-year-old to execute that level of technical skill is, frankly, mind-boggling.
Some critics argue it looks "too Western." They point out that a historical Jesus would have had much darker skin and different ethnic features. Akiane’s response has always been pretty consistent: she just painted what she saw in her visions. She wasn't trying to make a historical document; she was trying to capture a specific presence.
✨ Don't miss: Love Island UK Who Is Still Together: The Reality of Romance After the Villa
The Colton Burpo Connection
We have to talk about Colton Burpo again because he is the reason the prince of peace photo went viral before "going viral" was even a common phrase. In the book Heaven is for Real, his father, Todd Burpo, describes the moment Colton saw the image.
Colton had been dismissive of every "Jesus" image he saw. He’d say things like, "The hair is wrong," or "The eyes aren't right." When Akiane’s painting came on the screen during an interview, he told his dad, "That's the one."
This endorsement gave the painting a level of "supernatural" credibility that most art never gets. It bridged the gap between a piece of fine art and a religious relic. For many believers, it wasn't just a painting by a talented kid; it was a confirmed sighting. This created a massive market for prints. Suddenly, the prince of peace photo was in every Christian bookstore in America.
The Technical Mastery of an Eight-Year-Old
Let’s get into the weeds of the art itself. If you're an artist, you know that eyes are the hardest part to get right. They usually look flat or "dead" if you don't understand how light refracts in the cornea.
- Akiane used multiple layers of glazes to create depth.
- The eyelashes aren't just lines; they have individual direction and weight.
- The beard isn't a block of color; it’s hundreds of distinct strokes.
She used professional-grade oils on a large-scale canvas. Most kids that age don't have the hand strength or the attention span to maintain consistent brush pressure for that long. Her mother, Elizabeth, has spoken about how Akiane would wake up at 4:00 AM to paint. It was an obsession.
🔗 Read more: Gwendoline Butler Dead in a Row: Why This 1957 Mystery Still Packs a Punch
Debunking the Myths
There are a few things people get wrong about the prince of peace photo all the time.
First, people think it was a photo of a real person that was then photoshopped. Nope. It started as a blank canvas. Second, there's a rumor that she painted it in one night. She didn't. It took her forty hours of intense labor, spread out over weeks. Third, some claim the carpenter she used as a model was actually a famous actor. He wasn't; he was just a local guy who happened to show up at the right time.
There’s also a weird conspiracy theory that the painting contains hidden codes. Honestly? People love to find patterns where there aren't any. While the painting is full of symbolism regarding light and shadow, there’s no evidence of "secret messages" hidden in the brushstrokes. It’s a portrait, not a Dan Brown novel.
What Akiane is Doing Now
Akiane is no longer that little girl with the long hair sitting at an easel. She’s a grown woman, a published poet, and a world-renowned artist. She’s continued to paint, and her style has evolved significantly. It’s much more surreal and cosmic now.
But the "Prince of Peace" remains her most famous work. It’s the one that follows her. She’s expressed in interviews that she has a complicated relationship with it. It’s a gift and a burden. On one hand, it brought her fame and financial security. On the other, it’s hard to be a "serious" contemporary artist when everyone just wants to talk about something you did when you were in third grade.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you're interested in the prince of peace photo, don't just look at the blurry versions on Pinterest.
- Seek out high-resolution scans. The beauty of Akiane’s work is in the detail. Look for the way she handled the light in the irises.
- Watch the archival footage. There are videos of Akiane painting as a child. It’s the best way to dispel the idea that her parents did the work for her. Seeing her tiny hands move that brush is pretty convincing.
- Compare it to the "Shroud of Turin" reconstructions. Many people have noted the facial similarities between the man in the Shroud and Akiane’s painting. Whether you believe in the Shroud or not, the anatomical overlaps are a fascinating rabbit hole to go down.
- Visit the official gallery. If you ever get the chance to see a high-quality lithograph or the original (when it’s on public display), take it. Scale matters in art, and this piece was meant to be seen at its full size.
The prince of peace photo sits at the weird intersection of art history, religious belief, and the mystery of child prodigies. Whether you view it as a divinely inspired masterpiece or just a really impressive painting by a gifted kid, its impact on culture is undeniable. It changed how a generation of people visualizes one of the most famous figures in history, and that's no small feat for a bit of oil and canvas.