Personal and professional papers, artwork, correspondence and photographs of Milein Cosman

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). Cosman was a prolific diarist. The collection contains a nearly complete set of her diaries from the 1930s to the 2010s. 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. There is also correspondence, diary entries and papers about Cosman's student days in Oxford with John Heath-Stubbs, Sidney Keyes, Iris Murdoch, Oxford's émigré community and others. The collection includes correspondence, papers and photographs belonging to Keller, Milein's mother Helene Cosmann and her father Hugo Cosmann.

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 draw by publications, 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 of her travels including of 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 attened at Oxford Polytechnic and her recollections of life before, during and after the Second World War, arrangements for and producing exhibitions including her own, drafts of articles by Cosman and Keller for publications and draft,rehearsal and final scripts for Black and White, a 1958 Associated-Rediffusion television programme for schools about art broadcast by ITV, which Milein Cosman presented and helped write.

Collection Owner

Milein Cosman 1921 – 2017

Collection

Tate Archive

Acquisition

Presented by the Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust, 2021

Reference

TGA 20227