Lot Essay
Vaughan, a conscientious objector during the second World War, reported to Bulford camp, near Amesbury in Wiltshire in January 1941. At the end of his first year in the army Vaughan had filled four or five books with sketches of his fellows climbing into overalls and boots, harvesting, spud-bashing, lolling in the sun, playing snooker, or writing letters home. The strong contrast of black or sepia shadow with white paper in adjacent patches, or within the same form, make these little works very dramatic. (see M. Yorke, Keith Vaughan his life and work, London, 1990, pp.65-66).