Keith Vaughan

Agnew's, London
Sale, Sotheby's London, 30th September 1999, lot 110 (part lot)
Abbott & Holder, London, where acquired by the present owner, 27th November 2003

Sound board. There is very minor surface dirt, with a few traces of studio detritus. There are some old frame abrasions visible, with resultant traces of very minor loss along the left hand side. There is an old spot of loss in the trees in the upper right hand quadrant, but this excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals a few scattered traces of fluorescence and probable retouching in the upper right hand quadrant, with a few minor flecks appearing elsewhere. Housed in a thick dark wooden frame, set within a linen-textured mount. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present lot.
"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."

The present work dates from the mid 1930s when Vaughan spent much of his free time cycling around Suffolk and Essex looking for subjects to paint. This pastoral scene is typical of the work that he produced at that time (see The Barn,1935). It is interesting to note that these earliest rural subjects and country scenes were to hold Vaughan’s pictorial interest for another forty years, when the Essex countryside provided inspiration for some of his finest later landscapes.

“Landscape lacking in scenic hills, dramatic waterfalls and other traditionally picturesque features attracted Vaughan; his preference was for a pastoral landscape that retained evidence of man’s intervention. So local houses, gardens, cattle sheds, wood huts, ponds, copses and orchards all feature in his paintings. Landscapes containing abandoned objects, distant church towers or vistas interrupted, perhaps, by fences and punctuated with posts, provided pictorial accents. Other recognisable features that appealed to Vaughan’s sensibility included open, hedgeless pasturelands with views across ploughed fields towards distant trees, patchwork meadows, squared-off farm buildings and, of course, the ubiquitous black barns of Essex. He wrote, in a series of unpublished and undated studio notes (circa 1959):

‘A landscape must be familiar otherwise I only see the superficial dramatic aspects that any other sightseer sees. The ones that have revealed the most to me are the ones outside the window of my studio. Trees & sky & some man-made objects such as a house – that is enough to start the reaction. If there is water too, then it is almost perfect – I don’t mean that it should be empty. A landscape can only be measured by its remoteness from, & similarity to, human beings. But they must be as remote as the landscape is remote, however familiar & visible. It may take anything from three days or three months to make this contact. What I like best is a small, compact, unspectacular landscape, combining as much of the three basic elements – air, earth & water – within a space not so large that I couldn’t walk around it in half & hour. I do not like views or mountains – in one such landscape there would be enough material for a lifetime. There would be no need to change because the landscape is changing each hour of the day & week of the year. The longer one watches, the more one sees.’” (Gerard Hastings: Keith Vaughan in Essex, Fry Gallery, 2014).

We are grateful to Gerard Hastings, author of Drawing to a Close: The Final Journals of Keith Vaughan (Pagham Press) and Keith Vaughan the Photographs (Pagham Press), for his assistance in compiling the catalogue note for the present work.