# Keith Vaughan

John Keith Vaughan (23 August 1912 – 4 November 1977), was a British painter. His work is held in the collections of the Government Art Collection, National Galleries Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, Tate and Victoria and Albert Museum in the UK.

## Early life

Born at Selsey in West Sussex, Vaughan attended Christ's Hospital school.
He worked in an advertising agency until World War II, when as an intending conscientious objector he joined the St. John Ambulance; in 1941 he was conscripted into the Non-Combatant Corps.

## Art career

Vaughan was self-taught as an artist. His first exhibitions took place during the war. In 1942 he was stationed at Ashton Gifford near Codford in Wiltshire, and paintings from this time include The Wall at Ashton Gifford (Manchester Art Gallery).
During the war Vaughan formed friendships with the painters Graham Sutherland and John Minton, with whom after demobilisation in 1946 he shared premises. Through these contacts he formed part of the neo-romantic circle of the immediate post-war period. However, Vaughan rapidly developed an idiosyncratic style which moved him away from the Neo-Romantics. Concentrating on studies of male figures, his works became increasingly abstract.
Vaughan is also known for his journals, selections from which were published in 1966 and more extensively in 1989, after his death. A gay man troubled by his sexuality, he is known largely through those journals.

## Educator

Vaughan worked as an art teacher at the Camberwell College of Arts, the Central School of Art and later at the Slade School.

## Later life and death

He was diagnosed with cancer in 1975 and died by suicide in 1977 in London, recording his last moments in his diary as the drugs overdose took effect.

## Art market

His auction record of £313,250 was set at Sotheby's, London, on 11 November 2009, for the oil on canvas Theseus and the Minotaur, previously in the collection of Richard Attenborough (who bought it in 1967).

## Publications

* Keith Vaughan. Journals & Drawings, 1966, published in London by Alan Ross, 219 pages.
* Keith Vaughan: Journals 1939–1977, ed Alan Ross, 1989, published in London by John Murray, 217 pages, ISBN 0-7195-4732-6.
* Keith Vaughan, His Life and Work, Malcolm Yorke, 1990, published in London by Constable, 288 pages, ISBN 0-09-469780-9 (Hardback)

## Exhibitions
### 1944

    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London

### 1946

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London

### 1948

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, George Dix Gallery, New York
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Monotypes, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London

### 1950

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Instituto de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires
    Gouaches, Redfern Gallery, London

### 1951

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Alex Reid and Lefevre Gallery, London

### 1952

    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
    Keith Vaughan – Drawings for Rimbaud: Une Saison en Enfer, Hanover Gallery, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Durlacher Bros, New York

### 1953

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Leicester Galleries, London

### 1955

    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Leicester Galleries, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Durlacher Bros, New York

### 1956

    Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, Leicester Galleries, London
    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Show, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle

### 1957

    Keith Vaughan: Travelling Retrospective, (based on Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Show, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle), Arts Council
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Durlacher Bros, New York

### 1958

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Leicester Galleries, London

### 1959

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
    Keith Vaughan, Leicester Galleries, London

### 1960

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Drawings, Matthiesen Gallery, London

### 1962

    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London

### 1963

    Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Bienal de Sao Paulo

### 1964

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Charcoals, Marlborough New London Gallery, London

### 1965

    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
    Keith Vaughan: Recent Gouaches, Marlborough Fine Art, London

### 1966

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Durlacher Bros, New York

### 1967

    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Drawings, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester

### 1968

    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Rex Evans Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
    Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, Marlborough Fine Art, London
    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings 1942–46, Hamet Gallery, London

### 1969

    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective Exhibition, Mappin Gallery, Sheffield
    Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester

### 1970

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Drawings, Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings, Hamet Gallery, London
    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, University of York, York

### 1973

    Keith Vaughan: New Paintings, Waddington Galleries, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings in Gouaches, Victor Waddington Gallery, London

### 1976

    Keith Vaughan: New Paintings and Gouaches, Waddington Galleries, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches and Drawings, Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Gouaches and Drawings, Compass Gallery, Glasgow

### 1977

    Keith Vaughan: Memorial Exhibition, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield

### 1981

    Keith Vaughan: Images of Man: Figurative Paintings: 1946–1960, Geffrye Museum, London and Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery

### 1985

    Keith Vaughan: Drawings and Paintings, New Grafton Gallery, London
    Keith Vaughan: Early Drawings and Gouaches, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London

### 1987

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Drawings, New Grafton Gallery, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches, Watercolours and Drawings 1936–76, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, Sunninghill
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, Mercury Gallery, Edinburgh
    Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper, Garry Anderson Gallery, Darlinghurst

### 1989

    Keith Vaughan, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Drawings, Notebook Sketches, Redfern Gallery, London

### 1990

    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Drawings, Gouaches, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath

### 1991

    Drawings of the Young Male, St Jude's, London
    Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath

### 1994

    Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper, Redfern Gallery, London

### 1995

    Keith Vaughan: Les Illuminations de Rimbaud, an Exhibition of 42 Drawings, Deka, London
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Drawings and Gouaches, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath

### 1999

    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches and Drawings, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath

### 2000

    Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches, Drawings and Lithographs, Julian Lax, London

### 2002

    Keith Vaughan: Retrospective, Winter Fine Art and Antiques Fair, Olympia, London

### 2004

    Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath

### 2007

    Keith Vaughan: Figure and Landscape, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
    Keith Vaughan: A Selection of Early Work from the Collection of Peter Adam, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath
    Keith Vaughan: Paintings and Drawings, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London

### 2009

    Keith Vaughan: Drawings, Abbott and Holder, London

### 2010

    Drawings and Sketches for Paintings 1945–1960, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
    Keith Vaughan: Four Decades of Drawing, Gallery 27, London

### 2011

    Keith Vaughan: Gouaches, Drawings and Prints, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London
    Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath

### 2012

    Keith Vaughan, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London
    Keith Vaughan: Works on Paper from the Estate of Keith Vaughan, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Bath
    Keith Vaughan: Romanticism to Abstraction, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester
    Keith Vaughan, Osborne Samuel Gallery, London

## Collections

Vaughan's work is held in the following permanent collections:
* Government Art Collection, UK: 7 works (as of 19 April 2023)
* National Galleries Scotland, UK: 5 works (as of 19 April 2023)
* National Portrait Gallery, London: 1 work (as of 19 April 2023)
* Tate, UK: 1 painting (as of 19 April 2023)
* Victoria and Albert Museum, London: 32 objects (as of 19 April 2023)