Seaweed Hoist, Audierne

The title of the present work refers to the seaweed and kelp gathering that Vaughan witnessed on the beaches of Cornwall and at Finistère. He first visited Northern France in 1948 and returned the following year. In his journal he characterised the terrain as a ‘… harsh, dour and dramatic landscape: black, white, grey and ochre: peasant life, seaweed hoists and other motifs’ (K. Vaughan quoted in exhibition catalogue, Keith Vaughan: Paintings, Gouaches, Watercolours & Drawings, London, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, 1987, n.p.). Bladderwrack, samphire and kelp are used to decorate oyster platters and are ingredients in both medicinal compounds and agricultural fertilisers. Intrigued by how the lives of coastline communities were inextricably linked to the tides and conditioned by atmospheric circumstances, Vaughan produced several drawings of French harbours (see Brittany Harbour, 1948/9). These were then used to create a series of oil paintings (see Seaweed Hoist Finistère, 1951 and Finistère: Group of Fishermen, 1951) and gouaches such as the present work.

We are very grateful to Gerard Hastings for preparing this catalogue entry.