Keith Vaughan

Sandy Martin Esq., from whom acquired by the present owner, circa 2000

The sheet appears sound. The sheet is affixed to the mount with two tabs along the upper horizontal edge. There is old adhesive around the edges of the sheet which appear to be consistent with its display in a previous frame. There are two small areas of surface abrasion with resulting losses to the sheet apparent at the neck of the figure, thought to be inkeeping with the artist's working method. There are some small flecks of loss to the gouache scattered across the work. The most prominent of these are in the figure's left shoulder. There appears to be a small repaired tear to the lower left corner. There are a few small scratches, scuffs and spots of studio detritus to the work. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in good overall condition. The work is window mounted and presented in a wooden frame, held under glass. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 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.
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We are grateful to Gerard Hastings for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of this work. Gerard Hastings is currently working on a book about Keith Vaughn’s life and work in Essex.

Vaughan produced a series of works around 1948 characterised by heavily outlined forms and blocks of flat gouache colouring. He was also making his first set of lithographs for Frances Byng Stamper and Caroline Lucas at the Millers Press in Lewes. It is probable that Figure at a Table, and a handful of other comparable gouaches, was made as a trial run for that lithographic project.

The dominant design is made in waxy crayon, employed robustly in serrated, notched lines. This drawing technique is also used in Vaughan’s lithographs The Woodsman, Winter Landscape and Man and Boat, executed the following year. He has restricted his palette to yellow, green and orange and other related hues. Opaque patches of thick gouache alternate with more diluted use of the pigment – treated almost in the manner of watercolour. In an unpublished studio notebook, dating from 1963, Vaughan wrote, 'My early pictures were not, of course, pure gouache. They were mixtures of wax crayon, Indian ink and gouache. And the chemical properties of these different kinds of materials to a large extent determine their own control. They react on each other in certain ways which can be exploited but can not be prevented. You might call it a volatile medium.'

The model for Figure at a Table was John McGuinness. They had recently met at Pagham, where Vaughan occasionally went after the war. Not knowing his parents, McGuinness had been brought up as an orphan in Liverpool by priests. He had worked in hotels and grocery shops and he and Vaughan soon began an affair. In some ways McGuinness replaced Vaughan’s younger brother Dick, who had been killed in the war a few years earlier. He was kitted out in Dick’s clothes, taught how to cook, had his manners improved and was generally ‘brought on’.

The working-class, ill-educated McGuinness, with his large hands and athletic body, represented something raw and honest and embodied all the qualities that attracted Vaughan. His gentle, unaffected and open-hearted character allied him with nature, in Vaughan’s imagination, and we find his broad, broken nose, thick thumbs and rugged appearance in several works at this time including Seated Boy in a Landscape (1948), Fishermen at Mevagissey (1948), The Woodsman lithograph (1949) and Nude Study (1951).

 Gerard Hastings, 2015.