Rachel Owen fut la compagne de Thom Yorke, qui l’a rencontrée à  l’université d’Exeter. La jeune fille étudiait alors l’art (comme lui) et la littérature médiévale italienne. Rachel Owen a choisi la carrière d’artiste. Ses œuvres mêlaient généralement la photo et l’impression. A partir du début des années 2000, elle a décidé de suivre un cursus d’études au Royal Holloway de Londres, se passionnant pour la Divine Comédie de Dante et les illustrations de ses manuscrits. Ses recherches l’ont menée à passer quelques temps à Florence.

Reconnue internationalement, l’artiste était pourtant assez secrète sur sa vie privée… qui s’efforce de rester le plus possible dans l’ombre, faisant effacer les photos d’elle quand il en parait sur internet… De même, Thom Yorke ne parle jamais d’elle…

[quote cite=’Rolling Stone #1045, 7 février 2008′]After the Hail to the Thief tour ended in 2004, the band members took a year off to spend time with their families. Yorke, who has been with his partner, Rachel Owen, a fine-art printmaker, since they were students at Exeter University, will say very little about his family life. When asked if his children have managed to discover any music that annoys him, he thinks for a moment, then says, “I mean, I like the Chili Peppers. But I hear a lot of it in my house. They haven’t really heard our new record yet.”
Intentionally?
Just because…I think my missus isn’t ready to hear it yet. Having seen me go through the mills making it.
She hasn’t listened to it at all?
Not yet. She will. But it’s a difficult thing for her to watch me go through the whole process. She doesn’t like it. So she’s not exactly ready to listen to the music.
Would she rather you’d not make music and just be a happier person?
Yeah, probably.
So working on a record makes you a difficult person?
To live with? That’s about a hundred percent true. Yes. She does it, though.
She’s an artist, as well. Do you ever ask for feedback on what you’re working on?
It’s—yeah. Anyway. Next question. [/quote]

Après l’obtention de son PhD, Rachel Owen est devenue enseignante au Pembroke College (University d’Oxford), au poste de “Retained Lecturer”, elle donnait des cours autour de la Divine Comedy et de ses manuscrits.

Après 23 ans, le couple a mis fin à sa relation pendant l’été 2015, en bons termes selon un message de Thom Yorke…

[quote cite=’Déclarations de Thom Yorke’]Rachel and I have separated. After 23 highly creative and happy years, for various reasons we have gone our separate ways.

It’s perfectly amicable and has been common knowledge for some time.[/quote]

Toutefois… beaucoup de fans ont vu dans le neuvième album du groupe, A Moon Shaped Pool, un message de rancoeur adressé à Rachel.

Concernant son travail, on a pu lire cette biographie sur le site de oxfordprintmakers.co.uk. Aujourd’hui, elle n’y est plus, mais on peut encore y voir quelques une de ses oeuvres :

[quote]…was born in Cardiff. She completed a degree in Fine Art and Italian (specialising in printmaking) at the University of Exeter, and studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. In 2001 she received a PhD from the University of London upon completion of research into the illuminated manuscripts of Dante’s Divina Commedia. Her current work comprises photographic screenprints based on recent travels, often exploring the idea of transformation, both natural and supernatural. She has participated in numerous exhibitions in the UK and internationally, and currently lives in Oxford, where she teaches at Oxford University.[/quote]

Un journal Italien de Florence (rappel : elle y a étudié l’art, à l’Accademia di Belle Arti) lui a consacré un portrait en 2012 : http://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2012/09/23/news/rachel_l_altra_artista_di_casa_yorke_a_firenze_mi_innamorai_di_dante-43044420/

Elle a réalisé pour Radiohead la couverture du single Pop Is Dead  en 1993 !

Le site internet du Pembroke College a révélé que Rachel Owen était décédée le 18 décembre des suites d’un cancer dont elle souffrait depuis quelques années.

It is with great sadness that the College marks the death of Dr Rachel Owen, who was a Retained Lecturer in Italian here at Pembroke.

Dr Owen was an internationally renowned artist – mixing photography and printmaking – and at the same time a scholar in medieval Italian literature. As Retained Lecturer, she used to teach Dante’s Divine Comedy to Pembroke’s finalists in Italian.

Dr Owen’s parallel passion for art and literature was already established in her university years at Exeter, where she studied Italian and Fine Art. She then moved to Royal Holloway, London, where she completed a PhD on the illustrations of the early manuscripts of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Each year, her Pembroke students enjoyed the pleasure and the privilege of a guided tour through the manuscripts of the Divine Comedy held at the Bodleian Library.

Despite her declining health from cancer in the last year, she asked to continue to teach, which she did right until the end of last Michaelmas term. She was 48 years old and leaves behind a son, Noah, and a daughter, Agnes, aged 15 and 12.

One of her latest artistic productions was a series of prints inspired by the Cantos of Dante’s first book of the Divine Comedy. The prints will be exhibited at Pembroke’s JCR Art Gallery during Trinity term.

Rachel Owen, died on Sunday 18th December.