Keith Vaughan: Soldier in Repose, 1942

Description

Pen and ink and wash on paper,
Studio stamp on reverse
13.5 x 22 cm
Framed in oak

Provenance:
Artist’s estate, private collection

This drawing comes from a wartime sketchbook made at Codford Camp in 1942. Vaughan spent the winter of 1941 under canvas before moving into the comparative luxury of Nissen huts in January the following year. The weather conditions were  freezing, damp and cold; the tents were cramped and over-crowded and there was no personal privacy. Here Vaughan depicts one of his comrades in a rare moment of privacy, relaxing and unwinding from the back-breaking labour of carrying sacks of wet coal and gravel which, at that time, they were required to do.