Trees II (illustrated); Felled Trees I; Felled Trees II

These three pen and sepia ink drawings come from one of Vaughan's war-time sketchbooks. Inscribed on the cover of the Spirex Sketch Pad, in Vaughan's hand, are the words: 'Shere 1940 - Landscape - Pubs, Interiors, houses, trees'. After leaving Lintas, the advertising wing of Unilever, where he had worked as a layout artist, Vaughan set up studio for a year in a friend's greenhouse in Shere near Guildford. He spent his days painting and collecting visual information in his sketchbooks, while walking in the Surrey landscape. These three studies are part of a series that were made while Vaughan, a conscientious objector, was planning a painting on an anti-war theme. His intention was to draw a symbolic parallel between the felled trees and the soldiers who had fallen in the early days of the war.

We are very grateful to Gerard Hastings for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot. He is currently working on Keith Vaughan: Photographs, Drawings and Sculptures, to be published in 2013.