Win Stracke with Studs Terkel

Here's a guy you might not know, along with a guy you probably do know. Both are life-long friends of Robert Long, from the old days in Chicago. Win Stracke was a folksinger and guitarist with a wonderful rich baritone. He was one of the ensemble who populated "Studs' Place," a Chicago television show from the late 1940s, and hosted by Studs Terkel, the Pulitzer-prize-winning author of The Good War and Working, among others.

This portrait is typical of Robert Long's portrait works. He disliked formal poses and sought to place each subject naturally, to create an impression of the whole person. In his early career as a young man in Chicago, Long relied on portrait commissions for his livelihood.