Keith Vaughan (1912-1977)

Vaughan's gouache and ink study captures an intimate and unguarded moment of reverie and relaxation in a military bivvy hut, or tent. The khaki-brown tint promotes the military ambience while the untouched paper creates dramatic highlight that both suggests an interior source of light and lends the composition anatomic definition and tonal balance. The artist himself was among the inmates and so observes the life of the soldier in barracks from within. To this extent Vaughan's drawing is social documentary, sharing more with Hogarth or Ardizzone than with the stylised abstractions of the figure that would follow.