- 101
Keith Vaughan
描述
- Keith Vaughan
- The Bar II
- signed and dated /53
- oil on canvas
- 71 by 91.5cm.; 28 by 36in.
來源
Henry Williams, New York
Private Collection
Jonathan Clark & Co. Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner, 27th May 1994
展覽
New York, Durlacher Bros., Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, 18th January - 19th February 1955, cat. no.5 (as Bar);
Newcastle Upon Tyne, Hatton Gallery, Keith Vaughan Retrospective, 1956, cat. no.20, with Arts Council tour;
Bristol, Royal West of England Academy, Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, August 1958, cat. no.94;
London, Olympia, Keith Vaughan, 26th February - 3rd March 2002, cat. no.429;
出版
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
拍品資料及來源
We could be forgiven for expecting a scene in a Soho pub to be a jovial, cheerful affair. After all, Vaughan is known to have frequented the French House on Dean Street and The Black Horse pub in Rathbone Place, with the likes of Francis Bacon, Colquhoun and MacBryde, John Minton and John Craxton. Instead, however, he presents us with five pale, ghost-like figures sitting in silence around the bar in an atmosphere of dark ennui. They do not communicate, converse or glance at one another, as they sit lost in their separate, sombre thoughts. Vaughan was working well within a tradition when he painted The Bar; British artists from Hogarth to Burra had depicted figures in ale houses in an attempt to convey something of the human condition and the follies of the soul. We are, perhaps, reminded in this case more of Van Gogh’s nightmarish The Night Café (1888):
‘In my picture of the Night Café I have tried to express the idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime. So I have tried to express, as it were, the powers of darkness in a low public house' (Vincent van Gogh, letter to his brother Theo, September 9, 1888).
Vaughan’s monochromatic use of colour and murky palette communicates something of the sadness, isolation and detachment of the men sitting round the bar with their half empty lives and their half-consumed pints. He is careful to place the viewer behind the foreground figure as we, in turn, wait to be served in this macabre public house.
We are grateful to Gerard Hastings, author of Drawing to a Close: The Final Journals of Keith Vaughan (Pagham Press) and Keith Vaughan the Photographs (Pagham Press), for his assistance in compiling the catalogue note for the present work.