Andrew Vicari (born Andrea Antonio Giovanni Vaccari; 20 April 1932 – 3 October 2016) was a Welsh painter working in France, who established a career painting portraits of prominent people. Despite being largely unknown in his own country, Vicari was Britain's richest living painter, and at one time Britain's 18th richest person.

Early life

Vicari was born in

Port Talbot Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the south ...

, Wales, in 1932 to Italian parents, Vittorio Vaccari ('tobacconist and confectioner'), and his wife, Italini Bertani, from

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. He was evacuated to Aberdare during World War II. He later attended Neath Grammar School for Boys. Aged 12 he won the Gold Medal for Painting at the Wales National Eisteddfod. Between 1950 and 1952 he studied painting at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(UCL) under

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

and occasionally

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

as teachers. He had initially been refused a place at the Slade and was only admitted when someone dropped out.

Career

After only two years, in 1952, Vicari left the Slade without completing his diploma course and went to Florence. He stayed there and in Rome for two years before returning 'penniless' to the UK. He then began working in London as a portrait painter and in 1961 a large show of his work was put on in the former Debenhams showroom near Leicester Square financed by the band leader and impresario

Jack Hylton Jack Hylton (born John Greenhalgh Hilton; 2 July 1892 – 29 January 1965) was an English pianist, composer, band leader and impresario. Hylton rose to prominence during the British dance band era, being referred as the "British King of Jazz" ...

. Eschewing modern trends, he remained a figurative artist working in oil. His work is appreciated worldwide, especially in the Middle East where three museums are solely dedicated to his work. In 1974, Vicari was appointed as the official painter to the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and

Government of Saudi Arabia The politics of Saudi Arabia takes place in the context of a unitary absolute monarchy along Islamic lines, where the King is both the head of state and government. Decisions are, to a large extent, made on the basis of consultation among the Ki ...

. In the following decades, he painted many portraits of the

Saudi royal family The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is composed of the descendants of Muhammad bin Saud, founder of the Emirate of Diriyah, known as the First Saudi state (1727–1818), an ...

as well as scenes of

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...

and Bedouin life. It is largely due to this patronage that Vicari owed his financial success and in 2011 earned him the title "The Rembrandt of Riyadh" from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. In 2001, he sold a collection of 125 paintings of the First Gulf War to Prince Khaled for £17 million.

Personal life

Vicari lived and worked at his studio outside

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, France, although he also owned apartments in Riyadh and Monte Carlo. In 2006 his fortune was valued at £92 million by the ''Sunday Times'' Rich List. In October 2014, however, it was reported that Vicari had filed for bankruptcy and had been in poor health. Vicari died at

Morriston Hospital Morriston Hospital ( cy, Ysbyty Treforys) is a 750-bed hospital located in Cwmrhydyceirw near Morriston in Swansea, Wales. It is managed by Swansea Bay University Health Board. Alongside its role as a district general hospital, Morriston is a ...

, Swansea on 3 October 2016 at the age of 84.

References

External links

* , Summer 1963, published by ITV Cymru/Wales Archive
Official Website

Andrew Vicari at the Wales Video Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicari, Andrew 1938 births 2016 deaths Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art People from Nice 20th-century Welsh painters 20th-century British male artists 21st-century Welsh painters 21st-century Welsh male artists 21st-century male artists People from Port Talbot People educated at Neath Grammar School for Boys Welsh portrait painters Welsh people of Italian descent British expatriates in Monaco People of Emilian descent Welsh Eisteddfod Gold Medal winners Welsh male painters 20th-century Welsh male artists