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used to name as his teachers two German scholars: the already
mentioned Hugo von Tschudi and Karl Voll. Since
his youth Rosen must have also been familiar with the
novels of Joris-Karl Huysmans, under whose influence he
had remained throughout his whole life. It was Huysmans’ s
outlook on religious art that to a large degree had shaped
Rosen’ s attitude on that subject, and it was undoubtedly in
the writings of Huysmans that the painter encountered the
visions of a mystic nun Anna-Katharina Emmerich, from
which he subsequently drew inspiration for his paintings.
Despite the high esteem in which he apparently held
university education, Rosen was not slavishly obedient to
the scholarly established truths. He undoubtedly respected
the knowledge acquired at Mâle’ s lectures and drawn from
his publications, yet at the same time he reserved himself
the artistic liberty to use his own judgement and imagination.
This was an attempt at reconciling the academic
accuracy, learnt at the Sorbonne, with the impulsive and
poetically charged writings of Huysmans. Such an attitude
would prove characteristic of Rosen – author of the murals
in the Armenian cathedral in Lvov.
It is the period of the painter’ s Parisian studies that deserves
special emphasis, for it seems to have shaped Rosen’ s
entire artistic output. Émile Mâle, a celebrated scholar, is
considered the pioneer in the study of medieval religious
iconography. His monumental, seminal studies – though
some of them are already over a hundred years old – have
until now retained most of their original relevance and
still serve many art historians as a ‘primer’ in iconography.
Mâle’ s broad knowledge of medieval iconography, acquired
during years of in-depth, first-hand studies of works of art,
as well as his dedication to the subject he was teaching,
must have made a tremendous impact on the young Rosen,
whose initial interest in medieval religious art and liturgy
must have originated from his reading of Huysmans’ s
Cathedral. It is almost sure that without Mâle’ s teachings,
Rosen’ s art would appear quite different; the French scholar
had exerted a strong and lasting influence on him. This at
least can be inferred from the artist’ s paintings. They reveal
Rosen’ s thorough knowledge of, keen interest in and liking
for medieval art, and what is more, the models or sources
of inspiration for many of his pictures can be found in
Mâle’ s publications. Rosen not only listened to his ‘maître’
but also tried his own hand at research (as is testified by his
publications) – possibly not without his mentor’ s encouragement.
Just like he did in his paintings, where he not only
imitated medieval artists, he wanted to understand the way
in which medieval iconography was created. Once in possession
of a vast iconographic repertoire, he wanted to innovate
within the medieval idiom. Rosen understood the
‘spirit’, the mechanisms and the ‘laws’ governing medieval
iconography to such an extent that he was capable of producing
completely new creations, which looked so ‘natural’
and ‘authentic’ that one was sure they were original medieval
compositions. This rare ability was precisely the reason
for his unique talent.
The outbreak of war in 1914 interrupted Rosen’ s education.
He served in the French and then Polish armies and
ultimately – in the Polish diplomatic service, both at home
and abroad (among others, as a secretary and ADC to Ignacy
Paderewski in the Polish representation at the League
of Nations in Geneva). In 1921 he returned to Poland
and to studying art, this time at a municipal vocational
art school in Warsaw, where he attended evening classes
in painting, at the same time working at the Foreign Office.
In 1923, however, he quit his job in order to be able
to devote himself fully to painting. For the exhibition of
1925, where he met the Archbishop, Rosen showed his
most recent works, pieces created after he had left the Ministry
[Figs 123, 125–131]. At the end of 1925 Rosen moved
to Lvov in order to start work at the Armenian cathedral
and subsequent events tied him to this city for a few following
years. Shortly after he had completed the murals
in the cathedral he was appointed professor of figurative
drawing at Lvov Polytechnic (1930–1934). Following the
success of the Armenian cathedral, further commissions
started to come in: still in 1929 Rosen decorated the chapel
of the Roman-Catholic Theological Seminary in Lvov and
in 1930 a baptistery at St Mary Magdalene’ s church there.
He executed wall paintings in King John III Sobieski chapel
at St Joseph’ s church on Kahlenberg Hill near Vienna
(1931); at a cemetery chapel of Józef (Giuseppe) Toeplitz
at Sant’ Ambrogio Olona near Varese (Italy); in the Jesuit
church of St Stanislaus Kostka in Stanisławów (1932); at the
private chapel of the Pope in the papal summer residence
at Castel Gandolfo (1933), as well as in the parish church in
Przytyk near Radom. In 1936 Rosen painted a frieze decorating
the Polish Pavilion at the International Exhibition of
the Catholic Press in the Vatican and executed a mural and
four stained-glass windows for the chapel of the Polish Automobile
Club (now parish church) in Podkowa Leśna near
Warsaw. In the same year he painted murals in the parish
church at Krościenko Wyżne near Krosno, in the chapel of
the Roman-Catholic Theological Seminary in Przemyśl and
designed three stained-glass windows for the Sacred Heart
of Jesus church at Skarżysko-Kamienna. The following year
Rosen executed murals in the parish church at Lesko. At
the end of 1937 the painter left for the USA where he remained
until his death in 1982. During the 45 years spent
in America he decorated (with wall paintings and mosaics)
about 50 churches of various denominations and public
buildings throughout the country. Interestingly, between
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