Artist,  Translator. He was born in Brussels to Karl Blind and his wife Friederica (nee Ettlinger), who were from Mannheim in Germany but had been expelled from France for plotting against Louis Napoleon. In 1852, they arrived in England, where Rudolf was educated at University College School in Frognal, North London, and at the Royal Academy. He assisted with the decorations of the Opera House at Vienna; then, in 1870, on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, he enlisted as a volunteer in the German Army, and was in the ambulance service at the Siege of Strasbourg. In 1871, he married Sarah Annie Parsons, with whom he had three sons. In April 1892, he was prosecuted in the London courts for exhibiting a painting (“The World’s Desire”) which was alleged to be of an obscene and indecent nature; fortunately, the case was dismissed. Among his other paintings were: “The Golden Gates”; “Christ the Consoler”; “Love’s Ecstasy”; and “The Throne of Grace”. N.B. The inscription at the foot of his grave, “Sic itur ad astra”, is taken from Book IX of the Aeneid, and may be translated as, “Thus do we reach the stars.” (bio by: Iain MacFarlaine)