Keith Vaughan (British, 1912-1977)Figure and Peartree
signed 'Keith Vaughan' (lower right)
gouache, ink and pen and ink
14.5 x 11.5cm (5 11/16 x 4 1/2in).
Painted in 1950注脚Provenance
With Mercury Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owner, 23 March 1970
Private Collection, U.K.

During the late 1940s and early 1950s Vaughan painted several major oil paintings featuring figures in orchards, often gathering pears (see In the Orchard, 1946, Pear Tree Bathers (original version) 1948 and Man Gathering Fruit, 1948). He also made several still life paintings of pears (see Two Pears, 1947/8, Pomegranate and Pear, 1948, Yellow Pears, 1948 and Still Life with Pears, 1949). The fruit represented summertime and raw, succulent nature, and the gathering of it marked the passing seasons.

Rather than a study for a painting, this particular gouache was most probably made as an illustration, one of many for graphic projects that Vaughan was working on around this time. Painted in pear-like greens and yellows, Figure and Pear Tree evokes the colour and flavour of the fruit and conjures up a sense of summer. The overhanging branch echoes the figure's upraised arm and the formal blocks of colours suggest, rather than represent, the fruit trees of an orchard.

The mix of gouache and ink was one of Vaughan's favourite combinations. This stemmed from having been a commercial artist in the 1930s and, during the war he was forced by rationing and army conditions, to abandon oil painting. Nevertheless he could tease out of these simple materials highly evocative scenes. More than any other British artist Vaughan was responsible for developing the use of gouache away from the designer's studio and using it as an eloquent and expressive medium in painting.

We are grateful to Gerard Hastings, whose forthcoming book Keith Vaughan: The Graphic Art, will be published later this year by Pagham Press in association with the Keith Vaughan Society, for compiling this catalogue entry.