.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Vaughan registered as a conscientious objector during the war and serving as a non-combatant in the Army Medical Corps and the Pioneer Corps. Later he was stationed at Malton in Yorkshire, working as a clerk and an assistant German interpreter. He recalled, 'For a year I drew the raw material that was in front of me' (see Exhibition catalogue, Paintings by Robert Bevan and Drawings by Keith Vaughan, Lefevre Gallery, London, May 1944, p. 9). The daily activities of his comrades both on and off duty provided Vaughan with subject matter, as represented in the present work. Images of male bathers occur frequently in Vaughan's work and he was a great admirer of Cézanne's paintings on this theme. Moreover, echoes of Michelangelo's cartoon for Battle of Cascina may also be recognised here.
Oil painting was out of the question in the army and Vaughan recalled that he was forced to 'trim my sails to a minimum' (ibid. p. 8). Rationing made superior drawing materials scarce and like everyone else, Vaughan had to make do. His modest tools consisted of pencils, sepia ink, a few tubes of gouache, crayons and saved-up candle stubs with which to make wax-resists. These all fitted comfortably into his knap-sack. Consequently Vaughan's war-time drawings are invariably small, often containing a jewel-like intensity, as is the case here.
G.H.
Oil painting was out of the question in the army and Vaughan recalled that he was forced to 'trim my sails to a minimum' (ibid. p. 8). Rationing made superior drawing materials scarce and like everyone else, Vaughan had to make do. His modest tools consisted of pencils, sepia ink, a few tubes of gouache, crayons and saved-up candle stubs with which to make wax-resists. These all fitted comfortably into his knap-sack. Consequently Vaughan's war-time drawings are invariably small, often containing a jewel-like intensity, as is the case here.
G.H.