Raymond Teague Cowern
Raymond Teague Cowern was a British painter and illustrator, known for his strong drawing skills. He was born on 12 July 1913 in Birmingham, England, and died in 1986 at about 72 or 73 years old. He became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1968.
Cowern studied at the Birmingham Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1929 to 1931, then at the Royal College of Art until 1935. From 1937 to 1939 he was the Rome Scholar in Engineering at the British School in Rome. Early in his career he also worked as a draughtsman for an archaeological expedition to Sakkarah, Egypt.
When World War II began, he joined the British Army. He trained in Norwich and Farnham and served as an intelligence officer and then as a Field Security Officer with the 52nd Division in the Netherlands. He made many drawings of his training and combat experiences. Some of these works were bought by the War Artists' Advisory Committee and are now in the Imperial War Museum in London. He also worked on the Recording Britain project in 1940, painting historic buildings at risk in Suffolk, Worcestershire and Herefordshire; several of these drawings are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
After the war, Cowern continued painting and illustrating and lived in Brighton for many years. In 1947 he joined the Royal Watercolour Society. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1957 and a full member in 1968. The Royal Academy held a solo exhibition of his work in 2004.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:45 (CET).