拍品 101
  • 101

Keith Vaughan

估價
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
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描述

  • Keith Vaughan
  • The Bar II
  • signed and dated /53
  • oil on canvas
  • 71 by 91.5cm.; 28 by 36in.

來源

Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd, London
Henry Williams, New York
Private Collection
Jonathan Clark & Co. Fine Art, London, where acquired by the present owner, 27th May 1994

展覽

London, Leicester Galleries, Keith Vaughan: Paintings, October 1953, cat. no.26;
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

Anthony Hepworth & Ian Massey, Keith Vaughan, The Mature Oils 1946-1977, Sansom & Company, Bristol, 2012, cat. no.146, p.82, illustrated.

Condition

Original canvas, there are old small pin holes visible in the bottom left and top corners. There are some very minor old frame abrasions visible, most noticeably to the extreme left hand edge. There is reticulation to the centre and bottom centre of the composition, and a few further, smaller traces visible elsewhere, including, but not limited to the clothes of the far left sitter and the dark green torso of the central figure. This excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals minor traces of fluorescence and probable retouchings in the extreme top left corner, most probably in line with a previous framing, and a further area to the right hand side of the dark green torso of the central figure. These have all been very sensitively executed. Housed in a thick, dark wooden frame. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"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.
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拍品資料及來源

Vaughan was in the habit of producing more than one painting of the same subject while trying to work out compositional and formal qualities in his paintings. In 1953, for example, he made two versions of The Bar, each quite distinctive, though related in colour, mood and subject.

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.