The Wilderness, Parnham, Dorset, 1963

Raymond Cowern RA (1913 - 1986)

RA Collection: Art

This watercolour was painted near the Tudor mansion of Parnham House in Dorset at a time when the estate had fallen into disuse. R. T. Cowern depicted a clearing in the overgrown landscape with pine trees in the middle ground and a more densely wooded area beyond. The foreground is decorated with clumps of delicately drawn, creamy coloured cow parsley. Although Cowern's chief reputation was as an etcher and engraver, he also produced many drawings and watercolours which, like this one, were unrelated to his printmaking activities.



Raymond Teague Cowern was born in Birmingham in 1913, the only child of George Cowern, a coal merchant, and his wife Elsie. He attended the Birmingham Central School of Art, two years later winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London where he studied under Malcolm Osborne and Robert Austin. During the 1930s, Cowern worked as a draughtsman for an archaeological expedition in Egypt, making drawings and etchings of his surroundings during his spare time. He also won a scholarship to the British School at Rome from 1938-39.



Cowern's career was interrupted by the Second World War, as he was employed painting camouflage but never succeeded in becoming an official war artist. After the war Cowern began to build a successful career as a teacher and also developed a greater interest in painting. He wrote: 'after the war my release from the Army in 1946 saw a big change of method and scale. Painting took over, inches became feet.' Nevertheless, he continued to produce small-scale works like this one. When he was elected a Royal Academician in 1968, The Wilderness, Parnham, Dorset was the example he chose to present to the institution as his Diploma work. As John Ward RA later recalled, Cowern's 'watercolours, drawings and etchings were never of any size, they never needed to be. There was nothing else like them in the RA shows: as long as people have the urge to possess works of quality, works which record with imagination, skill and honesty then his pictures will be cherished.'