Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Keith Vaughan (British, 1912-1977) Black to White - Landscape with Figure 35.6 x 27.3 cm. (14 x 10 3/4 in.) (Executed in 1960) image 1
Keith Vaughan (British, 1912-1977) Black to White - Landscape with Figure 35.6 x 27.3 cm. (14 x 10 3/4 in.) (Executed in 1960) image 2
Keith Vaughan (British, 1912-1977) Black to White - Landscape with Figure 35.6 x 27.3 cm. (14 x 10 3/4 in.) (Executed in 1960) image 3
Lot 52AR

Keith Vaughan
(British, 1912-1977)
Black to White - Landscape with Figure 35.6 x 27.3 cm. (14 x 10 3/4 in.)

22 – 23 June 2022, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £15,300 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Modern British & Irish Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Keith Vaughan (British, 1912-1977)

Black to White - Landscape with Figure
signed with initials 'K.V.' (lower right)
pastel
35.6 x 27.3 cm. (14 x 10 3/4 in.)
Executed in 1960

Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, U.K.

Vaughan had used wax crayon as early as the 1940s. Then in 1959 he discovered oil pastels while he was teaching at the Iowa State University Art Department. He was instantly inspired by their rich, density of colour and the immediate manner in which they could be applied; they left no dusty residue, nor did they smudge like traditional artists' chalks. He continued to use oil pastels for the next two decades. Since 'they were then rare in England. He explained to Prunella Clough that they were 'waterproof, impervious to everything, can be rolled, stamped on, eaten!' (Malcolm Yorke, Keith Vaughan, his Life and Work, London, 1990, p.189).

In Black to White - Landscape with Figure Vaughan explores his primary theme of a male nude in a landscape and utilizes around ten different oil pastels to build up an abstract arrangement of forms encasing the figure. The chromatic arrangement of cobalts, indigos and azures are offset by more dominant blacks and other earthy hues. The blocks of landscape colour penetrate the figure which assists in incorporating it into his environment.

Vaughan exhibited fourteen such oil pastels as part of his 1962 retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery.

We are grateful to Gerard Hastings for compiling this catalogue entry. His new book Keith Vaughan: The Graphic Art, is to be published by Pagham Press.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.(British, 1887-1976)Five Figures 26.5 x 18.2 cm. (10 3/8 x 7 1/4 in.)

Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.(British, 1887-1976)People at the Beach 31.3 x 40.4 cm. (12 3/8 x 16 1/8 in.)

Fred Yates(British, 1922-2008)Still Life with Flowers

Fred Yates(British, 1922-2008)Vase of Flowers

John Bellany C.B.E., R.A., H.R.S.A., L.L.D.(Lon)(British, 1942-2013)Bouquet in a Floral Jug (unframed)

John Bratby R.A.(British, 1928-1992)Two Sunflowers

Philip Sutton R.A.(British, born 1928)Still Life

Anne Estelle Rice(American/British, 1887-1959)White Cyclamen

Joan Gillchrest(British, 1918-2008)Hyacinths Towards Zennor

Mary Fedden R.A.(British, 1915-2012)Still Life with Eggcup

Mary Fedden R.A.(British, 1915-2012)Still Life with Drawers

Bryan Pearce(British, 1929-2007)Fruit Bowl

Peter Collis R.H.A.(Irish, 1929-2012)Still Life with Blue Jug

Geoffrey Key(British, born 1941)Chinese Vases II

Tessa Newcomb(British, born 1955)The Evening after the Visit

Mary Newcomb(British, 1922-2008)Orange Winged Butterfly

Mary Newcomb(British, 1922-2008)Butterfly

Mary Newcomb(British, 1922-2008)Yellow Butterfly

Tessa Newcomb(British, born 1955)Our Field

Mary Newcomb(British, 1922-2008)Fishing Boat

Alan Lowndes(British, 1921-1978)Cap d'Antibes

Mary Fedden R.A.(British, 1915-2012)Oasis Pella, Jordan

Mary Fedden R.A.(British, 1915-2012)Gone Fishing

Alan Furneaux(British, born 1953)The Bay of St Michael's Mount