Description
Pen and ink and wash on paper,
Inscribed in artist’s hand, ‘Bradford on Avon’ at lower edge, studio stamp on reverse
13.8 x 22.5 cm
Framed in oak
Exhibited: Menier Gallery, London, 2014. No. 57
Literature: Prunella Clough & Keith Vaughan: Visions and Recollections, Pagham Press, p. 90
Provenance: Artist’s estate, private collection
This drawing comes from a wartime sketchbook made at Codford Camp in 1942. None of the pictorial ingredients – a house, a walled garden with an armchair and various unidentified figures – assist the viewer in locating a coherent narrative in this work. Nor does the baffling inscription at the lower edge. The theatrical appearance of the image hints, perhaps, at Vaughan’s intentions. During the 1930s he had made several studies in gouache and pencil for imaginary ballets and other theatrical productions.