Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)

'Very aware of the great classical variations on the theme of figures in a landscape from Giotto to Cézanne, via Stubbs and Gainsborough to Matisse and with his obsession with the male figure - twenty years before Bacon and Hockney - Vaughan observed the male figure, explored it formally and on occasion, notably in later years, semi-abstracted the figure for both emotive and formal reasons. He leaned heavily on the gravitas, the moody resonance of colour and the concentration of tough and muscular compactness of form learned from Cézanne' (see B. Robertson, Exhibition catalogue, Keith Vaughan, Austin Desmond Fine Art, London, 1990, pp. 4-5).