Artist Collections

Keith Vaughan

1912–1977

Keith Vaughan emerged in the 1950s as the foremost exponent of neo-romanticism in England. In 1985 the Museum purchased the complete set of 41 original pen and ink illustrations for P. H. Newby's The Spirit of Jem (1947) together with 69 photographs and 363 items of printed ephemera, proofs, magazine advertisements, book jackets etc. The latter formed Vaughan's personal archive of his output as an illustrator and graphic designer.

Of particular significance is Dick's Book of Photos (1939), 34 photographs compiled by Vaughan in a hand-made album, recording one idyllic summer on the beach at Pagham on the eve of war, dedicated to his brother Richard who was killed in action in 1940. There are also 35 photographs of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, taken around 1933 but relevant later in his career as a source for paintings. A group of early linocuts, six lithographs (he is known to have made only 8–10 lithographs) and a monoprint from the 1940s have subsequently been purchased to broaden the scope of the Vaughan Collection.