Studio: international art (40.1907)

Baron Arild Rosenkrantz

modern feeling. Baron Rosenkrantz has elected
to follow this last course. He reverences the
traditional sentiment of this art which has voiced
Christianity: he carefully studies its methods and
its crafts, but he is willing to benefit by the pro-
cesses of modern glass manufacture and that
appreciation of harmonised colour which in
modern years has been evolved in the art.

It was about ten years ago that Baron Rosen-
krantz first interested himself in stained glass. In
America, where he was then visiting, he executed
a large window in American opalescent glass,
which is now in the church of Wickhamheaux,
near Canterbury. A reproduction of this window
appeared in The Studio in 1898. He has since
executed many windows; none, however, in
American glass except one for Messrs. Tiffany of
New York. A later window executed by the artist
is the beautiful one for the Earl of Plymouth’s chapel
at Hewell Grange, which we reproduce (p.122). The
colour-scheme is deep blue, green and purple; only
the circle of birds surrounding the central figures
are deep ruby. The figures are kept in low grey
tones to form a lurid contrast to the rich surround-
ing colours. The window illustrates the lines
beginning “ Blessed are they that do the command-
ments,” and is intentionally symbolic in design.
At the foot of the Tree of Life is the Lamb,
and behind flow the Rivers of Life. The figures
above represent the souls rising to Heaven, the
angels in the top lights bending down to receive
them. The circle of birds is symbolic of souls.
They start in deep red hues at the base of the
tree and gradually towards the top they melt

through orange into pure white, symbolising the
purified souls that enter Heaven. Other windows
more recently executed by Baron Rosenkrantz in-
clude a series of heraldic windows for the Gothic
Hall at Welbeck Abbey and another similar series
for the hall at Foxcombe, besides a series of win-
dows for South wick Church, Dumfries.

It must not be thought from this record that of
late the artist’s powers have been altogether ab-
sorbed by his work in stained glass; on the con-
trary, while attaining these results he has permitted
himself much other artistic work. But when not
absorbed in window designing he has rejoiced
perhaps most in commissions for wall decoration,
which have answered also to the particular nature
of his gifts. In 1901 he executed for the large
dining hall at Ciaridge’s Hotel the ceiling decora-
tions of the twelve bays into which the room is
divided. The subjects which he chose are the
various gods of ancient Greek mythology who
preside over the animal and vegetable world ; and
of these a panel was reproduced in The Studio for
1904. In some respects this proved one of the
most important of all the artist’s undertakings,
occupying him unremittingly for one-and-a-half
years before its completion. It contains upwards
of one hundred life-sized figures. As a specimen
of the artist’s distinguished work in this field we
reproduce the panel over the fireplace in the
gentlemen’s dining-room at Simpson’s Restaurant
in the Strand.

In the artist’s studio hang some small water-
colours, by himself, of country-side scenes of
charm and distinction, but the artist dismisses

“ DAWN ”

BY ARILD ROSENKRANTZ