| Description | This collection comprises the personal and professional papers, diaries, correspondence, photographs, printed and published material, drawings, paintings, prints and sketchbooks belonging to the artist Milein Cosman (1921-2017).
Milein Cosman was a prolific diarist. The collection contains a nearly complete set of her diaries from the 1930s to 2017. Her diaries, correspondence and papers follow Cosman through her emigration to England in 1939 fleeing from the Nazi's, Cosman's student days in Oxford with John Heath-Stubbs, Sidney Keyes, Iris Murdoch, Oxford's émigré community, Cosman meeting her later husband Hans Keller in 1947, drawing many musicians and artists, her extensive travels and up to the days before Cosman's death. The collection also includes correspondence, papers and photographs belonging to Keller, Milein's mother Helene Cosmann and her father Hugo Cosmann. Cosman and her husband, the writer, broadcaster and musician, Hans Keller corresponded with many remarkable musicians, conductors, artists, actors, dancers, poets, politicians and authors including Benjamin Britten, John Heartfield, Andre Tchaikovsky, Josef Tal, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Sir Clifford Curzon, Ernst Gombrich, Kyffin Williams, Dannie Abse, Paul Hamburger, among others. Many of whom were their friends and who Cosman drew.
Milein Cosman worked primarily in conté, graphite and ink as well as using printing methods including drypoint and aquatint. Cosman had an incredible ability to capture people in movement and draw quickly. Cosman drew people who fascinated her and people she was commissioned to depict by publishers, broadcasters and individuals. Cosman created her artwork during rehearsals, musical and theatrical performances, sittings, observations, from photographs and from memory years later. Cosman created artworks of many people including Igor Stravinsky, Hans Keller, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Leonard Bernstein, Francis Bacon, Josef Tal, Jacqueline du Pré, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Joseph Beuys, among others and produced self-portraits. Cosman produced numerous drawings of The Proms for 'The Radio Times' from the 1946 until the 1970s. Perhaps best known for artwork of famous artists, musicians and actors, Cosman nevertheless, eschewed the epitaph of 'celebrity portraitist'. Cosman produced candid depictions of her family, friends, ordinary people on the street, the émigré community of London and from her travels including to Italy, Greece, Germany, Sarajevo, Nepal, India, USA, and Israel.
The collection includes excellent examples of Cosman's artwork, Cosman's prose, lecture notes from her schooling in Switzerland and her days at the Slade School of Fine Art, classes she attended at Oxford Polytechnic and her recollections of life before, during and after the Second World War, arrangements for and producing exhibitions including her solo exhibitions, drafts of articles by Cosman and Keller for publications, and rehearsal and final scripts for 'Black and White', a 1958 Associated-Rediffusion television programme for schools about art, which Milein Cosman presented and helped write.
This archive collection was catalogued and 750 pieces digitised thanks to a generous grant from The Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust. Translations courtesy of Jonathan Blower. |
| Administrative History | Emilie Else Cosmann, known as Milein Cosman, was born in Gotha, Thuringia, Germany on 31 March 1921 to Hugo and Helene Cosmann nee Dalberg. Milein's family had Jewish heritage. Hugo and Helene, known as Leni, had a son Cornelius Maximilian in 1914. In 1926, the Cosmann's relocated to Dusseldorf, as Hugo had purchased the small steel works Fakirstahl in Remscheid. In the spring of 1927, Milein began schooling at the Goethe-Lyzeum in Dusseldorf with friends such as Hilde Schrader and Ursel Deichmann. In 1937, due to rising anti-semitism, Milein was sent to Switzerland to be educated at the Ecole d'Humanite. Since 1936, her brother Cornelius had been studying Metallurgy at Glasgow University. From 1938-1939, Milein studied at the Ecole Internationale de Geneve, Switzerland.
During the Kristallnacht in November 1938, the Cosmann's home was attacked and ransacked, with furniture and artwork destroyed. Hugo and Helene who were home during the attack, fled to save their lives. Hugo sought refuge with Katharina Sopher, wife of the Cosmann's friend, the artist Bernhard Sopher, and Helene found refuge with other friends. Hugo and Helene later reunited and fled to Amsterdam, Netherlands where some of Helene's sisters lived. In 1939, after completing her studies in Switzerland, as she could not return to Germany and upon her brother's recommendation, Milein moved to London to attend the Slade School of Fine Art, arriving six weeks prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Milein had been interested in drawing, music and lithography since childhood.
From 1939-1942, Milein attended the Slade in Oxford where it had relocated to during the war. Milein's parents, Hugo and Helene, followed her to Britain settling in Sheffield with Cornelius, then London and later near Oxford, returning to Dusseldorf after the Second World War. During her studies at the Slade and while attending evening classes at some Oxford colleges, Milein made many friends including Sidney Keyes, John Heath-Stubbs, Iris Murdoch, Boris Ford, Philip Rawson and Drummond Alison. At the Slade, Milein studied Painting and Drawing and took Lithography lessons taught by Harold Jones prior to his war service, winning in 1940 the Slade's first place prize for her lithograph 'Flight'. While studying, Milein was associated with emigres, many of whom lived in Oxford during the war including the Cassirer family. It is thought Milein first met Marie-Louise von Motesiczky during a party for emigres in Oxford in the 1940s, prior to meeting again in 1951 at the studio of Jacob Bauernfreund, the second meeting sparking the start of their close friendship. After graduating from the Slade, Milein worked as a French teacher at schools near Oxford, worked on a milk float to help the war effort, attended evening classes at Oxford Polytechnic taught by Bernard Meninsky and was an Art Lecturer for the Workers Educational Association.
In 1945, Milein moved to London, working for the American Broadcasting Station in Europe, the British Institute of Adult Education, lecturing for the Red Cross and YMCA and as a freelance artist. Milein settled in Hampstead where she would live for the rest of her life. In 1947, Milein was commissioned by 'New Life' to create drawings of the first Edinburgh Festival and met Hans Keller, who was 'New Life''s music critic. They formed a lasting relationship and married in 1961, remaining married until Keller's death in 1985. Keller was a renowned musician, musicologist, writer, lecturer and psychoanalyst. Milein and Hans were connected to and friends with many artists, musicians, poets, dancers, authors and more. They were part of the émigré community in London.
Milein Cosman was commissioned to produce drawings for individuals and for many newspapers, publications, journals and broadcasters including Associated-Rediffusion Ltd, 'The Radio Times', 'Financial Times', 'The Times', 'Heute', 'LIFE', 'Dagbladet', and 'Music Review'. Cosman produced books in collaboration with her husband and by herself as well as designing book covers and dust jackets for many authors. Milein's artwork was part of several stand-alone exhibitions and she contributed to many group exhibitions. In 2006, Milein created the Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust to preserve and promote her work and the work of Hans Keller and to promote art and music. Milein Cosman died in November 2017 in London. |
| Custodial History | Milein Cosman to the Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust to the Tate Archive. |