Cliffs near Newhaven

Vaughan was especially fond of the shingle beaches on the South Coast of England and the Sussex landscape in general. He was born at Selsey Bill and spent his early summers there and, during the 1930s, at neighboroughing Pagham. The deserted beach and towering chalk cliffs of Newhaven, just east of Brighton, have supplied him here with an interesting build-up of almost architectural forms. As ever, in Vaughan's landscapes, he has imposed a formal organisation and structural arrangement on his subject. The painting is the result of several drawings made in situ in his sketchbooks. These were then worked up, on returning to his studio, into this final statement. His limited but harmonious palette, consisting of only yellow-greens, whites and blue-blacks, is typical of his economy of means. The painterly application is also characteristic of Vaughan's fluid handling of oil paint during this period.
G.H.