Jens Christian Rosing (28 July 1925 – 24 May 2008) was a notable Greenlandic artist, author and storyteller. He designed the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is ...

, many Greenlandic

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the ...

s, as well as illustrated children's books and created diverse works of art.

Life

Rosing was born in 1925 in

Ilulissat Ilulissat, formerly Jakobshavn or Jacobshaven, is the municipal seat and largest town of the Avannaata municipality in western Greenland, located approximately north of the Arctic Circle. With the population of 4,670 as of 2020, it is the t ...

(Jakobshavn), Greenland, son of priest and artist Otto Rosing. In 1947–1948, he was a student at the Akademiet for Fri og Merkantil Kunst in Denmark. In 1952, he married Dagny Rosing (maiden name Nielsen), who is Danish. That year, Rosing introduced domesticated

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subsp ...

Nuup Kangerlua Nuup Kangerlua is a long fjord in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. It was formerly known by its colonial name as Godthaab Fjord ( da, Godthåbsfjorden), Gilbert Sound and Baal's River.Nicoll, James. An Historical and Descr ...

, and he managed a reindeer station in Itinnera along one of the

fjords In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icela ...

near

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other co ...

until 1959. He and his family lived for many years in a suburb of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

. Jens and Dagny Rosing had 3 boys and one girl.

Career

Greenlandic Traditions

Rosing focused on understanding, interpreting and sharing Greenlandic traditions. He told stories in words, images and sculptures. By 1999, he had published 4 books in Greenlandic, 13 books and articles in Danish, and 1 book in English in addition to illustrating another 17 books, many for children. Rosing also made several films documenting Greenlandic Inuit traditional activities, particular hunting. A full listing of his published contributions includes 145 works in 305 publications in 8 languages.

Stamp Design

Rosing was known as the number one stamp designer for Greenland. Throughout his 50-year career, Rosing produced 130 stamp designs. His first design was produced in 1957 and was a commemorative stamp for Greenland. It had a scene featured on it from the ''Mother of the Sea''. There are two versions of the stamp. The first stamp was printed in 1957 in a green-blue color, and the 1961 reprint was in blue. In 1962, another stamp was created from ''Drum Dance'', and in 1966 a stamp showing ''The Boy and the Fox'' was created. In 1985, the coat of arms stamp was designed by Rosing. The stamp does feature a standing polar bear, in which Rosing did not design. The last stamp was created in 2007. It features dogs pulling a sled in an unknown place in Greenland. More complete listings of the stamps designed by Rosing from 1957 to 1995 can be found in and from 1995 to 1998 in. All Greenlandic stamps were printed in only one color until the 1980s. Beginning in 1985, stamps became printed in offset, or in a combination of offset and recess-type printing. The later versions are brighter. However, they fail to show the appearance of the one color recess printing stamps.

Qilakitsoq Mummies

Rosing was curator and director of the Greenland National Museum in 1976-1978 when he saw photographs of the

Qilakitsoq Qilakitsoq is an Ghost town, abandoned settlement and an important archaeological site in Greenland. It became known as the discovery location of eight Mummy, mummified corpses from the Thule people, Thule period. The Inuit mummies of Qilakit ...

mummies. He realized their significance and initiated their excavation and study. In his book "The Sky Hangs Low", Rosing describes the find and results from scientific studies of the mummies in the context of Greenlandic Inuit culture. Rosing's line drawings and watercolors illustrate key features of the mummies, particularly details of their clothing.

Awards

* Danish Writers Association's popular science prize, 1979 * Greenland Christmas Seal Committee's prize, 1983 * Greenland Home Rule's Culture Prize, 1985 * Danish State Art Foundation's life-long grant, 1989 * Greenland Home Rule's Decoration for Meritorious Services, 1997

Publications

*''The Sky Hangs Low,'' Penumbra Press, 1986 *''Hvis vi vågner til havblik'', Borgens Forlag, Copenhagen, 1993 * ''Si nous nous réveillons par temps calme ...'', éditions Paulsen, Paris 2007 * ''Things and Wonders, the Norsemen in Greenland and America'', Gavia, Humlebæk, 2000

References

Sources

Jens Rosing's biography
on Inuit.uqam.ca *Brunstrom,C.

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Jens Rosing: Greenland’s Grand Old Man
'. *Pasternack, Simon

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Books * ''999'' (anthology) or ''999 ...

''Oqaluttuartoq Jens Rosing, Fortaelleren Jens Rosing, Jens Rosing the Storyteller'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosing, Jens 1925 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Danish illustrators 20th-century Danish male artists 20th-century Danish male writers 20th-century Greenlandic people 21st-century Danish illustrators 21st-century Danish male artists 21st-century Danish male writers 21st-century Greenlandic people Danish children's book illustrators Danish documentary filmmakers Danish stamp designers Greenlandic artists Greenlandic Inuit people Inuit artists Inuit filmmakers Inuit illustrators Inuit writers People from Ilulissat Philately of Greenland