Room 12: (Clockwise from
entrance door)
Romanticism in the 1940s
During the Second World War
Vaughan was a conscientious
objector, and served with the
Pioneer Corps, recording his
experiences in his journals and
in ink and gouache drawings. He
was not appointed an Official
War Artist, but was included in
exhibitions of war art as well
as writing contributions for
‘Penguin New Writing’ and
illustrating numerous literary
anthologies. His work drew on
themes from literature such as
the poetry of Homer and Arthur
Rimbaud, presenting poetic
responses to the horrors of war
and a refuge in nature. The
figure in the landscape became
a key theme in Vaughan’s work,
and he came to be seen as a
leading figure in the group of
artists dubbed the ‘NeoRomantics’, which included
Graham Sutherland, John Piper,
John Minton, Michael Ayrton,
Robert Colquhoun and Robert
MacBryde.
In the late 1940s Vaughan’s
work explored the alienation of
the post-war years, painting
psychologically intense groups
of figures in room settings
which were to lead to his large
format figure paintings of the
1950s and 1960s.
Seated Boy
Circa 1937-8
Oil on cardboard
Collection of John Allen
F.R.S.A.
This early example of a male
nude from the late 1930s was
painted whilst Vaughan was
working at Lintas, the
advertising arm of Lever
Brothers. The pose and
monumental quality of this
painting reflects Vaughan’s
awareness of Pablo Picasso’s
Neo-Classical nudes of the
1920s, such as the celebrated
painting of two youths on a sea
shore ‘The Pipes of Pan (1923).
Vaughan had visited Paris,
Toulon and Cassis in 1937, and
in London he frequently visited
exhibitions of modern art
including Picasso and Matisse.
Ulysses II
Circa 1938
Oil on paper
Collection of John Allen
Collection F.R.S.A
In 1938 Vaughan created a
series of paintings of male
figures on the shoreline with
titles that make reference to
the classical myth of Ulysses,
the hero of Homer’s epic poem
‘The Odyssey’. The poem
describes Ulysses travails as
he tries to return home to
Ithaca with his crew after the
Trojan War, suffering
shipwrecks and adventures. This
classical subject of figures on
the shoreline is an extension
of his paintings of bathers on
the beach at this time.
Lighthouse 2
1945
Ink and crayon on paper
Private Collection, London
The lighthouse in this painting
with its multiple faces and
many outstretched arms is
possibly a reference to the
myth of Hero and Leander, or to
the Sirens that lure the Greek
hero Ulysses onto their island.
The overlapping profiles
reflect Vaughan’s appreciation
for the paintings of Pablo
Picasso in the late 1930s and
his awareness of Surrealism.
Two Figures by the Shore
Circa 1942
Pen, ink and wash on paper
Private Collection, London
Night in the Streets of the
City
1943
Indian ink, gouache and crayon
on paper
Private Collection, West Sussex
In July 1943 Vaughan wrote in
his journal: “I do not paint as
a result of visual experience,
or from any positive urge to
expression. I start with an
excited awareness of certain
materials, Indian ink, white
paint, ochre, chalk, and a more
or less contained
predisposition for certain
forms, the stone circle, rock
forms, elemental non-precise
forms and seek to arrange them
in a way which will relieve and
satisfy me. As every possible
known or unknown arrangement is
open to me, the question of
which to use becomes
bewitching.”
Seligheit
1944
Ink and collage on wash paper
Private Collection
During the Second World War
Vaughan worked as a German
translator in a prisoner of war
camp. The precise meaning of
the title is unclear:
‘Seligheit’ can be translated
as ‘blessed protection’ or
‘Seligkeit’ as ‘Salvation’.
Both could be correct as the
landscape seems to offer
protection, or least solace,
from the war. The collaged ink
drawings provide an insight
into his way of working, and
bringing together compositional
ideas. It relates closely to
the drawing ‘Man in a Cave’
shown alongside, and to some of
his designs based on the poetry
of Arthur Rimbaud.
Man in a Cave
1943
Gouache and ink on paper (with
wax resist?)
Private collection courtesy
Osborne Samuel Gallery, London
This ink wash drawing of a nude
male sheltering in a rocky cave
reflects the technique of Henry
Moore’s ink drawings of
civilians sheltering from the
Blitz during the Second World
War. The vulnerability of the
figure, curled up in an almost
foetal position, seems to be a
wider metaphor for humanity
during the war. In Vaughan’s
image it is nature that seems
to offer a form of protection
from the horrors of war.
Lovers I
1946
Gouache, ink and crayon on
paper
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
This image of a couple
embracing reflects a tender
side of Vaughan’s work and a
reflection on intimacy during
the war years and immediately
after. In his journal he
observed: ‘In this setting one
could hardly expect to find man
standing confidently alone. But
in huddled groups, separate
forms hardly distinguishable,
merged together they create a
certain steady glow of
humanness. Or else as lovers,
locked in each other, a single
bipolar entity, oblivious to
the outside, reaffirming each
his existence in the other. And
the threat of parting never
very far away.’
Two Labourers Lighting a
Cigarette
1946
Gouache, ink and crayon on
paper
Anthony Hepworth, Bath
Vaughan wrote in his journal of
being drawn to: ‘a state of
tension, which results when two
different things of different
natures are brought together. A
figure in a landscape, the
natural world and the human
world, a man lighting his
cigarette from the butt of
another’s – the essential
separateness of individuals
momentarily united in a single
gesture – these to me are
situations of conflict. In
painting I seek for
reconciliation. I seek a common
unit of construction with
which, while each individual
object retains its essential
identity both can be built anew
together in order and harmony.’
Theseus (Study for the Festival
of Britain)
1951
Oil on board
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
In 1951 Vaughan was
commissioned to paint the
central mural for the Dome of
Discovery at the Festival of
Britain. The mural depicted the
Greek hero Theseus, who was the
embodiment of all that the
ancient Athenians thought best
and most distinctive about
themselves. The skull is a
reference to the Minotaur that
Theseus had slain in the
Labyrinth of Knossos. Vaughan’s
choice of subject was
appropriate for the Festival of
Britain, as Theseus was also an
intellectual and statesman,
credited with the establishment
of the Panathenaic Festival of
Athens and the foundation of
Athenian democracy.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
1950
Oil on canvas
Anthony Hepworth, Bath
The first ballet Vaughan had
visited was ‘The Prodigal Son’
in 1929, which had been created
for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes
with sets by Georges Roualt.
Vaughan was not religious, but
the Biblical parable of the
Prodigal Son may have had some
personal significance: his
father had walked out in 1920,
and even as an adult he could
scarcely bring himself to
mention his name, and his
younger brother Dick had been
killed during the Second World
War. This is one of a series of
paintings exploring a
psychological tension between
the inhabitants of a bare room.
The Trial
1949-50, partially re-painted
in 1959
Oil on cardboard
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
Between 1948 and 1951 Vaughan
painted a series of eight
interiors with two or three
figures. This painting is based
on the 1925 short story ‘The
Trial’ by the Czech Modernist
writer Franz Kafka in which a
man is arrested by a remote and
inaccessible authority and
accused of a crime that he did
not commit which is revealed to
neither him, or the reader. The
dark and nightmarish atmosphere
of this painting with its
suggestions of torture could be
seen to convey the
uncertainties of the immediate
Cold War era. It was partially
repainted in 1959, to simplify
and strength the composition,
in particular on the right-hand
figure.
Amacuzac - Group of Bathers
1959
Gouache and pastel on paper
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
The title of this painting is
probably a coded reference to
the hometown of Vaughan’s
Mexican lover Raul, with whom
he had a brief romance during a
trip to Mexico City in 1959.
After his return to New York,
Vaughan confided to his
journal: ‘Raul in Amacuzac.
Three or four times a day his
memory returns with such force
that it shatters the present
reality. I stand stock still in
the middle of the sidewalk… The
ridiculous pricking of tears
behind the eyes.’
Old Seaweed Hoist
1953
Lithograph on paper
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
This lithograph directly
relates to an oil painting
called ‘Seaweed Hoist,
Finistèrre’ (1951). Vaughan had
cycled around Brittany in 1949,
returning from the trip with
notebooks that were to fuel his
art. In the words of Vaughan’s
biographer Malcolm Yorke, his
ambition was ‘to be a European
painter rather than a merely
English one.’ However such
works also reflect Vaughan’s
awareness of the painter
Christopher Wood who had
created self-consciously naïve
images of fishing villages in
Brittany and Cornwall.
Head of a Boy
1949
Oil on board
Collection Paul Lyon-Maris
The Singer
1947
Oil on canvas
Southampton City Art Gallery
The hard background colours and
angular forms have affinities
with the work of Francis Bacon
in the immediate post-war
years. The critic Hetty Einzig
observed of this painting that
‘the sense of dramatic tension
and struggle are clearly
present. By trapping the hand
behind the picture frame,
impeding the forward thrust of
his chest, the image becomes
one of frustration; the
clenched fist, straining body
and open mouth form a yell
rather than a song.’
Seated Boy with Cup
1948
Oil on canvas
The Haines Collection
The subject of this painting
was the seventeen-year-old John
McGuinness, whom Vaughan met
while on holiday at Pagham in
Sussex in 1948 through his
former lover Harold Colebrook.
McGuinness had grown up in an
orphanage in Liverpool before
becoming a hotel page boy and
subsequently Vaughan’s houseboy, model and clandestine
lover. His rounded head and
broken nose provided the artist
with strong features to paint,
enabling him to concentrate on
the structure of the painting,
rather than surface detail.
Blue Boy
1949
Lithograph on paper
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Aside from his illustrated
books, Vaughan produced only
seven fine art lithographs, the
majority of which were
commissioned by the Redfern
Gallery in the late 1940s and
early 1950s. The lithographic
printing process enabled
Vaughan to reproduce his
distinctive qualities of line
and areas of colour. These were
usually derived from other
works rather than being
produced directly for the
medium of lithography.
Display Case:
The Age of Fable
1949
Ink on paper
Private Collection
Gardens at Belsize Park
1949
Ink on paper
Private collection
From 1946 to 1952 Vaughan
shared a house and studio with
the artist John Minton at
Belsize Park in London. This
ink drawing shows the view from
near Vaughan’s studio. From
1946 Vaughan taught
illustration at the Camberwell
School of Art, moving to the
Central School of Art in 1948
where he taught both
illustration and painting. This
ink drawing was used as an
illustration in a poetry
anthology compiled by Allen
Freer entitled ‘Persons, Places
and Things’ in 1969, published
by Cambridge University Press.
Illustration for Rimbaud
1944
Mixed media on paper
Dennis Andrews and Christopher
Whelen Collection
Vaughan felt a particular
connection with Arthur
Rimbaud’s poetry, and was
fascinated by the poet’s
tortured homosexual
relationship with Paul
Verlaine, which culminated in
Verlaine’s arrest and
imprisonment for wounding
Rimbaud with a revolver. In
around 1943 Vaughan had
produced a series of drawings
inspired by Rimbaud’s ‘Un
Saison en Enfer’ (A Season in
Hell).
Illustrations for ‘Une Saison
en Enfer’
1949
Offset lithograph on paper
Published by John Lehmann Ltd.
On loan from a private
collection
The publisher John Lehmann
commissioned Vaughan to produce
lithographs for an edition of
‘Une Saison en Enfer’ (A Season
in Hell) by the French poet
Arthur Rimbaud with a parallel
text by the poet Norman
Cameron. The lithographs were
printed by the Baynards Press
and present a hellish vision of
young males in dark landscapes,
a counterpart to the dark
visionary intensity of
Rimbaud’s poetry.
Book jacket for ‘Une Saison en
Enfer’ by Arthur Rimbaud
1949
Published by John Lehmann
On loan from a private
collection
Book Jacket for ‘A Vagrant and
Other Poems’ by Alan Ross
1950
Published by John Lehmann
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Vaughan was a close friend of
the poet Alan Ross. He designed
his book ‘Time was Away’ which
included illustrations by John
Minton, and often visited Ross
and his wife at their home in
Sussex. Ross wrote the
introduction for Vaughan’s
Journals, in which he observed:
‘For all the melancholy
implications of the journals,
they provide evidence in every
entry of love of life, love of
beauty, love of humanity,
hatred of injustice, hatred of
falseness, hatred of
hypocrisy.’
Bookplate for Michael Redgrave
c. 1943-45
Scraperboard on paper
On loan from a private
collection
The actor Michael Redgrave
bought Vaughan’s ‘Night in the
Streets of the City’ in 1943,
and the two corresponded
afterwards. This ex libris
presents the traditional
pastoral image of the poet
reading in the landscape, which
has its roots in the poetry of
Virgil. In 1942 Samuel Palmer’s
sepia painting of Milton
reading in a harvest field was
published in Horizon Magazine
and was influential on the
‘Neo-Romantic’ artists such as
John Minton, John Craxton,
Michael Ayrton and Keith
Vaughan. Vaughan also designed
ex libris for the publisher
John Lehmann amongst others.
Two Figures by a Torn Tree
Branch
c.1946
Pencil on paper
Presented by Gerard Hastings
and David Evans (2011)
On card laminate – outside case
(angled)
Cover for ‘New Writing and
Daylight’
Winter 1943-44
Book jacket
Published by the Hogarth Press,
London
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Cover for ‘Orpheus Vol 1’
1948
Book jacket
Published by John Lehmann,
London
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Cover for ‘Orpheus Vol 2’
1948
Book jacket
Published by John Lehmann,
London
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Cover for ‘The Spirit of Jem’
by P.H. Newby
1947
Book jacket
Published by John Lehmann,
London
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Cover for ‘A Mountain Boyhood’
by André Chamson
1957
Book jacket
Published by John Lehmann,
London
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Cover for ‘Billy Budd’
1946
Book jacket
Published by the Leagrave Press
Dr Mark Cecil Collection
Cover for ‘3 Novels: Caprice,
Vainglory and Inclinations’ by
Ronald Firbank
1950
Book jacket
Published by Gerald Duckworth
and Co. Ltd
Dr Mark Cecil Collection