Head of Stravinsky

Cosman made hundreds of drawings of musicians (many are now in the museum of the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London), drawn from life and observed during concerts or rehearsals, they are deftly captured in pencil or pen and ink with a lively economy of line. She also sketched composers including Benjamin Britten, Richard Strauss and Leonard Bernstein and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

The RCM collection includes 50 drawings of Stravinsky alone, most sketched at the BBC Studios in Maida Vale, west London, during the composer's visit to London in 1959. Cosman visited for three days and drew constantly. She also published a sketchbook of Stravinsky at rehearsal, with a text by her husband, Hans Keller, in 1962.

We are grateful to Milein Cosman's biographer, Dr. Ines Schlenker, for identifying this drawing. Dr. Schlenker has also noted that the artist first executed a portrait of Stravinsky in 1951 and, since he looks younger here than in the 1959 series, this work possibly dates from the earlier session.