Keith Vaughan

Alex Reid & Lefevre, London, where acquired by Wilfrid A. Evill January 1949 for £42.10.0, by whom bequeathed to Honor Frost in 1963

London, Alex Reid & Lefevre, New Paintings and Drawings by Keith Vaughan, December 1948, cat. no.6;
Hampstead, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Catalogue of the Greater Portion of a Collection of Modern English Paintings, Water Colours, Drawings and Sculpture Belonging to W. A. Evill, March 1955, cat. no.112;
Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery, The Wilfrid Evill Memorial Exhibition, June - August 1965, cat. no.275.

 

The colours are richer and deeper in tone than the catalogue illustration suggests. Original canvas. There are a few tiny, very minor flecks of paint loss, including a fleck to the centre of the composition to the left of the ladder, to the bottom of one of the ladder legs, and beneath the signature. There is some very minor frame abrasion about the edges. The work has recently been cleaned and the surface is generally in good original condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an opaque uneven varnish which makes the reading difficult to interpret but no apparent signs of retouching. Held in a painted and gilt composite frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted during the period when Vaughan was graduating from using gouache to working consistently in oil paint, Man Gathering Fruit is an early work which represents not only his increasing confidence with the medium but also what was to be his long-standing occupation: the counter-point of figuration and abstraction. For Vaughan the figure, and in particular the male nude, invested his paintings with a vital human sensibility which he succeeded in balancing with his preference for abstraction. His early compositions touch upon the styles of Cézanne, Matisse, Sutherland (especially in early works such as Figures by a Torn Tree Branch, 1946, Private Collection) and latterly Nicholas de Stael. At times his own hardest critic, he often doubted his resolutions to the formal tensions residing between figure and environment and the challenges it presented: 'one need think only of the struggle of a Cézanne bather to remain in harmony with, yet separate from his surroundings.' However, surveying Vaughan's career, he undoubtedly succeeded in establishing a defined style in which figure and environment do co-exist, with neither subversive to the other. The abstract qualities of his paintings are enriched by the presence of figures, which exist as integral parts of the painting and instil a distinct mood both powerful and expressive. 

Vaughan's paintings rarely specify their location; the space remaining ambiguous through the formal devices employed and Man Gathering Fruit is no exception. The interplay of abstracted shapes merges one plane into another and flattens the picture space. A sense of recession is only subtly evoked in carefully considered lines, the placement of the objects and the tonal variations. Vaughan integrates the figure within this abstracted space through clever interaction - his left arm appears an extension of the tree's branches and the step-ladder, an extension of the figure, echoes the tree. Without these human elements the dynamic and intrigue of the painting would be lost. Vaughan ensures the presence of the figure is felt through his distinct, rounded head and the injection of blue colour; to abstract him further would deny the painting the necessary degree of human resonance that remained so important for Vaughan.

Man Gathering Fruit is a delightfully balanced work, the surface a harmonious interweave of colour and form that unifies the whole. It possesses that quality of mood - solitary and poignant - particular to Vaughan, and a formal coherence between figure and abstraction that was Vaughan's great achievement.