Keith Vaughan

Acquired by the late owner by 1962

London, Whitechapel Gallery, Keith Vaughan Retrospective, 1962, cat. no.142.

Anthony Hepworth and Ian Massey, Keith Vaughan, The Mature Oils, 1946-1977, Sansom & Company, Bristol, 2012, cat. no.AH138, illustrated p.79.

Not viewed out of the frame. The board appears sound. There is some very light frame abrasion apparent along the upper horizontal and right vertical edges. There are one or two specks of light surface dirt and matter. Subject to the above, the work appears to be in excellent overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an uneven varnish layer. There are some very tiny flecks of retouching to the aforementioned frame abrasions at the upper horizontal and right vertical edges, with one or two tiny flecks of further retouching in the upper left quadrant. There is some fluorescence near the signature, but this is thought to be as a result of the uneven varnish. The work is presented in a painted wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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We are grateful to Gerard Hastings, whose latest book, Paradise Gained and Lost: Keith Vaughan in Essex, will be published in the spring by Pagham Press, for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

Standing Nude belongs to a group of oil paintings that Vaughan made, between 1951 and 1953, of isolated male figures (see Stooping Bather (1951), Standing Figure (1952), Nude Against a Green Background (1953) Nude Drying with a Towel (1953) and Nude Washing at a Tap (1953). Although not intended to form a homogenous group, many were exhibited, to some acclaim, at the Leicester Galleries in London. It was around this time that his handling of oil paint was maturing and becoming more eloquent. The impasted surface has become an equivalent of flesh rather than a mere illustration of it.

Vaughan’s main model, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, was John McGuinness and he probably posed for Standing Nude. They met in 1948 and, since he possessed several attributes to which Vaughan was habitually attracted, they began a life-long friendship. McGuinness had considerable physical presence and his features can be found in other figure paintings executed around this time including Fishermen at Mevagissey (1948), Interior with Figures and Table (1948), Green Kitchen Group (1949) and Nude Study (1951).

The subject, characteristically truncated at the ankles, is presented against an unidentifiable, dark backdrop. His remoteness from any particular setting, and removal from other figures, lends him a distinctly monumental presence. Far from being an heroic representation of the human form, he conveys a quality of vulnerability, introspection and, perhaps, even shame. He stands with his head lowered, helpless and exposed, while a perturbing shadow falls across his face. Although Nude Against a Green Background is a representation of a studio model, it could well be interpreted as a psychological self-portrait. Vaughan painted many of these throughout his career. Seemingly anonymous male nudes are infused with autobiographical emotions that reflect his current psychological and emotional state. When he painted Standing Nude his artistic reputation was assured and secure. In 1952 he had two one-man shows in London (Redfern and Hanover Galleries), and one in New York (Durlacher Bros.). His 1953 Leicester Galleries show had been well received but, nevertheless, Vaughan remained acutely self-conscious. It should be remembered that this was a time when homosexuality was illegal and considered a social transgression. Vaughan was painfully aware that his representations of the male nude, were regarded, in some circles, as suspect and that his private life made him vulnerable to societal disapproval and even blackmail. On December 22, 1953 he wrote in his journal:

I ask myself which of my pictures would I be willing to stand beside in public, say Piccadilly Circus, for all to see. The least personal ones, I suppose – abstract landscapes. The continual use of the male figure, no matter how one may develop it as a painting, retains always the stain of a homosexual conception. What of Renoir? What of Boucher? Was it shameful then? “K. V. paints nude young men”. Perfectly true, but I feel I must hide my head in shame. Inescapable, I suppose, – social guilt of the invert. But I have absolutely no conscious desire to make a painting sexually appealing. Once the battle is engaged, other considerations alone matter. (Keith Vaughan, Journal, December 22, 1953).

Gerard Hastings