Keith Vaughan

Marlborough Fine Art, London
Brian Bedford
Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London, where acquired by Professor John Ball
The Hargreaves and Ball Trust

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, 1968, cat. no.13;
Hamburg, Kunstverein, Britische Kunts Heute, 30th March - 12th May 1968, cat. no.68;
London, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, Keith Vaughan, 21st November - 19th December 1989, cat. no.94, illustrated p.30; 
London, Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Drawings, 26th February - 3rd March 2002, cat. no.KV 457;
Bath, Victoria Art Gallery, Keith Vaughan: Figure and Landscape, 3rd February - 25th March 2007, cat. no.34, illustrated p.36;
Bath, Anthony Hepworth, The Hargreaves and Ball Trust: Selected Works, 2010, illustrated. 

Anthony Hepworth and Ian Massey, Keith Vaughan: The Mature Oils 1946-1977, a Commentary and Catalogue Raisonné, Sansom & Company Ltd, Bristol, 2012, cat. no.AH472, illustrated p.166;
Philip Vann and Gerard Hastings, Keith Vaughan, Lund Humphries in association with Osborne Samuel Limited, Farnham, 2012, illustrated p.18.

Original canvas. The canvas is sound. There are a few scattered minor losses to the extreme edges, most noticeable along the right vertical edge, possibly the result of frame abrasion. There are fine lines of craquelure throughout, in particular horizontal lines in the lower third of the composition, with further horizontal lines in the upper left quadrant. There are areas of fine cracquelure in places, most noticeably in the darker pigment between the two figures and in passages of the green pigment. The surface is slightly dirty. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals one or two spots of minor retouching around the extreme edges, possibly previous losses from frame abrasion, as well as a milky varnish which makes reading the surface difficult. The work is presented in a narrow natural wood frame. Please telephone the department on +44 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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We are grateful to Gerard Hastings for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work, and preparing the below essay.

In Two Figures (Damson) tilted heads, pink, fleshy torsos and outstretched limbs are set off against a darkened background, while accents of neutralized sap green subtly harmonize the effect. Vaughan has brought the male subjects into a harmonious coalescence, whereby the two figures interpenetrate one another to such a degree that it is difficult to disentangle them. Prunella Clough – perhaps Vaughan’s closest friend – discussed this particular painting at length with Professor John Ball and Dr. Gordon Hargreaves while it was in their collection. She pointed out that it was primarily for formal reasons that Vaughan represented his figures reaching out to the edges of the canvas, saying it locked them in and held them tightly within the confines of the composition ‘just like guy ropes’. This, of course, is one of Vaughan’s characteristic compositional habits. Having initially worked the image up to, what he first thought was, a satisfactory stage, Vaughan returned to it two years later to reconsider these formal considerations. According to Clough, he was much pleased at having resolved his early apprehensions in this final version.