She arrived at the Slade in 1939, just as war broke out, as an 18-year-old Jewish refugee from Düsseldorf in Germany. She began her studies not in London but in Oxford, where the Slade was evacuated throughout the war. The Slade was temporarily amalgamated with Oxford’s Ruskin School of Drawing, which was housed in the Ashmolean Museum.

The photograph above shows Slade students and staff gathered on the steps of the Ashmolean in Oxford in the early 1940s. Milein is standing at the centre of the picture and seated at the front is the Slade’s Principal, Randolph Schwabe (1885-1948).

Please see the The Cosman Keller Art and Music Trust website to learn more.

Milein Cosman