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Baron Arid Rosenkrantz
He that hath an ear let him hear what The Spirits saith unto The Churches
to the Glory of God and in loving memory of Julia Louisa Rosenkrantz
b Oct 13 1840 + in Rome Sep 10 1911
Dedicated to his mother Julia Louisa, these stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel of St Nicolas Church are the masterpiece of the distinguished artist Arid Rosenkrantz who lived in The Porches in the High Street.
Baron Arid Rosenkrantz, 1870-1964, first worked in stained glass in the USA where he designed the King Alfred the Great window for Tiffany. His creative output included sculpture, watercolours, portrait painting, ceiling panels, stage design and book illustrations. There is a permanent exhibition of his work at Rosenholm Castle in his native Denmark.
His many important works include The Omnipresent, a sculptured war memorial at St George’s Church, Camberwell, ceiling panels in Claridges Hotel, stained glass windows in Berkeley Castle and St Paul’s Church, Kensington, and illustrations to an edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
In 1911, Rosenkrantz was commissioned to paint pictures for the entrance to the new Royal Academy of Music in Marylebone Road. Just two months after the unveiling ceremony the pictures were removed because it was thought that the displays of nudity would offend the female students. The pictures were ‘lost’ for more than 70 years and then ‘found’ in 1989 in a private wing of Rosenholm Castle, the Rosenkrantz family home near Aarchus in Denmark. The pictures were returned to the Academy on a 30-year loan and reinstalled in February 2007.
In 1912, Rosenkrantz designed, choreographed and staged the ballet The Gate of Life, set to piano music by Beethoven, including his Moonlight Sonata.
Karl Lawrence