Jens Rosing

Who was Jens Rosing?

Jens Christian Rosing was a Greenlandic artist notable for designing the coat of arms of Greenland, many Greenlandic postage stamps, as well as illustrated children's books and water colors.

Rosing was born in Ilulissat, Greenland, son of priest and artist Otto Rosing. He married Dagny Rosing, who is Danish, and they had 3 boys and one girl. Until the late 1950s, they lived in the fjords of Nuuk, Greenland. They lived for many years in a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Rosing was known as the number one stamp designer for Greenland. Throughout his 50 year career, Rosing produced 130 stamp designs, and his first design was produced in the 1950s.

The first design 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. The reprint was in 1961, in just a blue color.

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.