The Artist's Garden in Belsize Park

This is Vaughan at his most Minton-esque, demonstrating that he could do the ink line view as well as his friend. Vaughan had an uneasy relationship with the deeply conflicted but brilliant John Minton (1917-1957). He loved and admired him, calling him a ‘scintillating creature’ but was also highly critical of him. Vaughan wrote in his diary after Minton’s suicide: ‘He was profligate in everything — with his affections, his money, his talents, and with all his warmth and charm, essentially destructive.’ In this early drawing, which is never quite as regularly paced or rhythmic as a Minton drawing of the same subject would be, Vaughan demonstrates his characteristic interest in texture and pattern and the awkwardness of objects to be seen from his window. The densely-woven result is full of life and interest.

A.L.

Andrew Lambirth is a writer and curator. For many years the art critic of The Spectator (2002-2014), his reviews have been collected in a paperback entitled A is a Critic. His numerous books include full-length monographs on William Gear, Roger Hilton and Margaret Mellis. He has written catalogue essays on Keith Vaughan, Graham Sutherland and Terry Frost amongst many others, and knew Prunella Clough and John Craxton. He has also curated exhibitions of work by Eileen Agar, Cedric Morris and Ivon Hitchens for various museums and public galleries in the UK. His latest monograph is John Nash: Artist & Countryman (Unicorn, 2019).