Keith Vaughan 1912-1977
The Walled Garden, 1951
lithograph in colours on BFK Rives wove, with full margins
19 1/2 x 25 1/4 in
49.5 x 64 cm
49.5 x 64 cm
signed in pencil
While this print was produced in 1951, it relates in subject to Vaughan’s 1940s paintings and drawings of gardens that were concerned with regeneration and renewal after the war. Works...
While this print was produced in 1951, it relates in subject to Vaughan’s 1940s paintings and drawings of gardens that were concerned with regeneration and renewal after the war. Works such as 'Rectory Garden' (1944) and the more explicitly allegorical 'Agony in the Garden' (1944) use the motif of the felled tree to signify the possibility born of destruction. There are affinities here with the work of Graham Sutherland, who was close to Vaughan in the period, notably in the palette, upturned tree, and crescent-like forms.
The subject is also derived directly from a number of pen and ink drawings Vaughan made in 1942-43, showing men clearing wood in front of the the high walls of Ashton Gifford House, Wiltshire. Later, in 1946, the artist developed these observational sketches into a more stylised image, 'Study for Walled Garden' (1946), which showed a large felled tree in front of the wall with the house just visible behind. In the early '40s, Vaughan, a conscientious objector, was serving in the Pioneer Corps, an army unit which was involved in war-work in Britain, such as labouring and farming; Vaughan made many outdoor drawings as he moved around army camps in the south of England though from 1941 he was stationed at nearby Codford. In a letter to the amateur artist Norman Towne, who was also serving in the 9th Company, Vaughan evocatively described the scene at Ashton Gifford:
‘The white and ochre branches plunging down into the oceanic tangle of nettles. People walking through the waist-high grass, through the aqueous leaf-green shadow, arms full of dead wood … And the wall running in an indefatigable horizontal, losing and finding itself in the jungle of weed and ivy … I wanted to capture this in lassoes of line and nets of colour, but it’s more difficult than writing about it.’
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, a number of initiatives were developed to encourage contemporary artists to produce colour prints, leading to a focus of British interest on fine art printmaking. This is one of only seven lithographs created by Vaughan, most of which were published by the Redfern Gallery between 1949 and 1956. Examples from this series include 'Figure with a Boat' (1950; coll. Tate Gallery, London, P77176) and 'Winter Landscape' (1949; coll. Victoria and Albert Museum, London), with another from this edition in the Arts Council Collection (ACL 472). The lithographs were likely printed at the Central School of Art alongside the technician Ernest Devenish.
The subject is also derived directly from a number of pen and ink drawings Vaughan made in 1942-43, showing men clearing wood in front of the the high walls of Ashton Gifford House, Wiltshire. Later, in 1946, the artist developed these observational sketches into a more stylised image, 'Study for Walled Garden' (1946), which showed a large felled tree in front of the wall with the house just visible behind. In the early '40s, Vaughan, a conscientious objector, was serving in the Pioneer Corps, an army unit which was involved in war-work in Britain, such as labouring and farming; Vaughan made many outdoor drawings as he moved around army camps in the south of England though from 1941 he was stationed at nearby Codford. In a letter to the amateur artist Norman Towne, who was also serving in the 9th Company, Vaughan evocatively described the scene at Ashton Gifford:
‘The white and ochre branches plunging down into the oceanic tangle of nettles. People walking through the waist-high grass, through the aqueous leaf-green shadow, arms full of dead wood … And the wall running in an indefatigable horizontal, losing and finding itself in the jungle of weed and ivy … I wanted to capture this in lassoes of line and nets of colour, but it’s more difficult than writing about it.’
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, a number of initiatives were developed to encourage contemporary artists to produce colour prints, leading to a focus of British interest on fine art printmaking. This is one of only seven lithographs created by Vaughan, most of which were published by the Redfern Gallery between 1949 and 1956. Examples from this series include 'Figure with a Boat' (1950; coll. Tate Gallery, London, P77176) and 'Winter Landscape' (1949; coll. Victoria and Albert Museum, London), with another from this edition in the Arts Council Collection (ACL 472). The lithographs were likely printed at the Central School of Art alongside the technician Ernest Devenish.
Exhibitions
London, Redfern Gallery, 'French and English Colour Lithographs', November - December 1951, no.213;London, Arts Council, 'Contemporary British Lithographs', 1951, introduction by Edwin La Dell, no.30
