One of America's most accomplished muralists and a man of colorful character, John De Rosen (Jan Henryk de Rosen) created eight murals and seven altar panels to the aisles and chapels of Grace Cathedral, as well as murals and mosaics in numerous other cathedrals and churches worldwide.

Born "between easel and sword" in Warsaw, Poland, in 1891, De Rosen was the son of a court painter to the last Russian czars. Raised in France, he served with distinction in World War I, joining in turn the French, British and Polish armies. In the latter, he participated in one of the last armored cavalry charges ever mounted. Unhorsed, he was unable to rise due to the weight of his armor!

A translator at the Versailles conference that ended the war, he later returned to Poland where he began to paint. "I did not want to be a painter but could not help myself," he once admitted. Early commissions included murals in the private chapel of Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence. Their prophetic Polish historical/religious theme is appropriate to the present Polish pope. A Polish embassy aide in Washington D.C. during World War II, he subsequently made that city his home. Major works followed, including what may be the world's largest mosaic, covering the dome of the Roman Catholic cathedral in St. Louis, and vast murals in the Immaculate Conception Shrine in Washington.

De Rosen's early work at Grace Cathedral includes a faux-tile mural behind the Chapel of Grace reredos (1932), and the Chapel of the Nativity's Adoration mural (1946) showing the Holy Family with magi and shepherds. The donor did not like the angels hovering above and had the artist remove them, but constellations still mark their place. De Rosen also included a little image of his boyhood home in Warsaw in the mural. On a smaller scale, De Rosen painted exquisite panels (1949) for the old High Altar, now in the Chapel of St. Francis columbarium.

The most visible works of De Rosen in Grace Cathedral are the historical aisle murals (1949-1950) done in a style blending elements of the early Italian masters Giotto and Mantegna. Grace Cathedral's aisles were only half completed at the time, so De Rosen's murals end at mid-aisle. The south aisle World Church series depicts St. Augustine and King Ethelbert, Fray Junipero Serra and Governor Portola, and Sts. Francis and Clare - while the north aisle Anglican/Episcopal Church series show Francis Drake and chaplain Fletcher, Bishop Kip at Fort Tejon, and the consecration of Bishop Seabury. An amusing correspondence between De Rosen and "My Lord" Bishop Karl Morgan Block show the trials and tribulations of both parties in the creation of the murals. One is reminded of Michelangelo and Pope Julius!

Like nearly all his work, De Rosen's Grace Cathedral murals are in durable wax tempera (a mixture of pigment and beeswax liquified by alchohol) set in fields of shimmering gold leaf, on plaster. De Rosen is said to have used Dutch beer to liquify the wax! Working at times behind a curtain, De Rosen used live models (including cathedral clergy, staff and visitors) and his lifelong companion "Wilfred," a little manikin used to determine drapery patterns. Despite an abhorrence of exercise, De Rosen kept in excellent shape climbing ladders and scaffolds.

De Rosen had some pithy comments on present-day religious artists, most of whom, he maintained "do not have the slightest understanding of the tradition and meaning behind what they are painting." John De Rosen died in 1982, and a fitting epitaph might be his description of his murals - "They do not fade, but, like most of us, mellow with time."

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