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Lot Essay
In 1952 Vaughan went on a drawing trip along the South East coast of Scotland and Northumberland. He visited Berwick, Longformacus and St. Abbs, among other places, and was very much taken by the rugged, unspoilt beauty of the Berwickshire landscape. The visit spawned various important oil paintings (River at Longformacus, 1952; Coast Above Berwick I & II, 1953; St Abbs, 1953 etc.)
It was Vaughan's habit, on such journeys, to fill sketchbooks with interesting pictorial motifs and visual information; these provided raw data for gouaches and oil paintings that he subsequently worked up, over the winter months, on his return to his Belsize Park studio in London. The present work, made in situ at St. Abbs' harbour, depicts the row of hilltop houses above, and fishing boats below. It provided inspiration for both a gouache and an oil painting of the same scene that Vaughan completed the following year.
This comparatively concentrated picture is uncharacteristic, since Vaughan's travel sketchbooks usually contain line drawings made in pencil or more reduced compositions in ink. Here pen and Indian ink is played off against brush drawing to ascertain the tonal values of the scene. Vaughan's customary geometric structure is imposed on the view with the repetition of the square windows and the harbour ladder in the foreground.
G.H.
It was Vaughan's habit, on such journeys, to fill sketchbooks with interesting pictorial motifs and visual information; these provided raw data for gouaches and oil paintings that he subsequently worked up, over the winter months, on his return to his Belsize Park studio in London. The present work, made in situ at St. Abbs' harbour, depicts the row of hilltop houses above, and fishing boats below. It provided inspiration for both a gouache and an oil painting of the same scene that Vaughan completed the following year.
This comparatively concentrated picture is uncharacteristic, since Vaughan's travel sketchbooks usually contain line drawings made in pencil or more reduced compositions in ink. Here pen and Indian ink is played off against brush drawing to ascertain the tonal values of the scene. Vaughan's customary geometric structure is imposed on the view with the repetition of the square windows and the harbour ladder in the foreground.
G.H.