Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)

Two Male Nudes, 1962

signed and dated (lower right)

charcoal

50 x 35cm.

Throughout the 1960s Vaughan consciously expanded both his vision and his technique to stay abreast of emerging new ideas in British art and decided to experiment and explore new drawing media. He made a series of innovative charcoal drawings inspired by the working methods of his most talented student Mario Dubsky (1934-85), who drew large charcoal figures. Vaughan was so impressed and intrigued by the immediacy of the medium that he produced around twenty charcoal drawings.

Dubsky recalled demonstrating how charcoal was capable of producing a wide vocabulary of marks. He explained to Vaughan how to rub and blend charcoal to achieve subtle tonal gradations and rich, velvety effects and how to use an eraser to create subtle highlights. Vaughan’s first attempts were awkward as he struggled with the new medium:

Friday July 8 1960: Some large charcoal drawings latterly. Of no importance. Impossible to get/keep things in focus.

He persisted with the medium and even discovered a particular hand-made linen paper with a high tooth, which helped remove the charcoal marks from the stick to achieve interesting results. Despite successfully expanding his graphic range, Vaughan was also becoming painfully aware of the importance of developing his art in the face of the up-and-coming new generation of artists:

July 31, 1962: Better - I did one large charcoal drawing and several small ones - (in fact I did as much if not more yesterday)…The crux of the problem really is that I am facing at last the reality of my situation. All the romantic illusions which carried me through the past crises are over. I must come to terms with the facts or perish. In my work as in my life. Hence the difficulties in everything.

Eight of his charcoal drawings were exhibited to some acclaim in his Whitechapel Gallery retrospective in 1964.

We would like to thank Gerard Hastings for cataloguing this lot.