Milein Cosman

Emilie Cosman, known as Milein Cosman, (31 March 1921 – 21 November 2017) was a German-born British artist. She was best known for her graphic work of leading cultural figures, dancers and musicians in action, such as Francis Bacon, Mikhail Baryshnikov, T. S. Eliot, and Igor Stravinsky.

Biography Cosman was born in Gotha, Germany, in 1921, daughter of Hugo Cosmann (1879–1953). She spent most of her childhood in Düsseldorf. Because of her Jewish background and the rise of National Socialism, she went to school in Switzerland, at the Ecole d'Humanité and the International School of Geneva between 1937 and 1939. She came to England in 1939.

Between 1939 and 1942, Cosman studied at the Slade School of Art. In 1943, she attended evening classes at Oxford Polytechnic, where she was taught by Bernard Meninsky.

In 1947, Cosman met the Viennese-born musician, writer, broadcaster and teacher Hans Keller (1919–1985), whom she married in 1961. She was renowned for drawing quickly, and much of her work was done from the wings or auditorium during rehearsals for concerts, theatrical and dance performances, capturing movement “in mid-flight” as Ernst Gombrich put it.

In 2006, Cosman founded the Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust, which aims to support young musicians and artists as well as publishing, exhibiting and archiving her own and Hans Keller’s work. Before her death Cosman gave drawings, sketchbooks, etchings and oil paintings, The Milein Cosman Dancers Collection, to the Department of Music and Dance Studies at the University of Salzburg. A biography and comprehensive overview of Cosman's art by art historian Ines Schlenker was released in 2019.

Tate Archive holds the Milein Cosman Archive of more than 10,000 items, including most of her sketchbooks and thousands of drawings and prints, along with her personal and professional papers, diaries and photographs. A selection of these have been digitised.

Books produced or illustrated by Cosman Hans Keller and Donald Mitchell (eds) (with drawings by Cosman): Benjamin Britten: A Commentary on his Work from a Group of Specialists (London, Rockliff, 1952) Musical Sketchbook (Bruno Cassirer, Oxford, 1957) Neville Cardus (with drawings by Cosman): Composer's Eleven (London, 1958; ) (with Hans Keller): Stravinsky at Rehearsal (1962; published in Germany as Stravinsky Dirigiert) (with Hans Keller): 1975 (1984 minus 9) (London, 1977) (with Hans Keller): Stravinsky Seen and Heard (Toccata Press, 1982; ). Reissued as Stravinsky The Music Maker (ed. M. Anderson, Toccata Press, 2010) (With Hans Keller): The Jerusalem Diary - Music, Society and Politics, 1977 and 1979 (ed. C. Wintle & F. Williams, Plumbago Books, 2001, ) Lebenslinien/Lifelines (ed. Thomas B Schumann and Julian Hogg, Edition Memoria, Cologne, 2012, ) (with Hans Keller): Britten London, Plumbago Books and Arts, 2013, (hardback), 978-0-95660075-2 (softback) Milein Cosman: Capturing Time (Ines Schlenker, Prestel, Munich, 2019, (hardback))

Solo exhibitions 1949: Berkeley Gardens, London

1957: Matthiessen Gallery, London

1968: City of London Festival

1969: Camden Arts Festival

1970: Theatre des Champs-Élysées (Festival International de Danse, British Council), Paris

1974: Ryder Gallery, Los Angeles

1984: Yehudi Menuhin School, Surrey

1984: Dartington Hall, Devon

1988: Stadtmuseum, Düsseldorf

1990: Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

1996: Belgrave Gallery, London

2007: Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels

2008: Austrian Cultural Forum, London

2014: Hunterian Museum, Glasgow

2014: Kunstforum, Gotha

2015: Rathaus, Düsseldorf

2019: Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

2021: Stadtmuseum, Düsseldorf (centenary exhibition of works by Ilde Schrader and Milein Cosman, who were childhood friends)

2021: Hampstead School of Art, London

2022: Bundestag, Berlin (a joint exhibition including works from the art collection of the Akademie der Künste)

2022: Palais des Beaux Arts (Bozar), Brussels (permanent exhibition of drawings of musicians by Milein Cosman)

2022: Haus Hövener, Brilon (exhibition of works by Milein Cosman and Ilde Schrader)

2024: Stadtmuseum Bonn

2026: Hampstead School of Art, London