Jack Vettriano

Jack Vettriano (born Jack Hoggan, 17 November 1951 – 1 March 2025) was a Scottish painter, known for his distinctive figurative style, often depicting scenes of romance, mystery, and nostalgia. Largely self-taught, Vettriano gained international recognition with his 1992 painting '' The Singing Butler,'' which became one of the best-selling art prints in the UK.

His works, characterized by cinematic composition and atmospheric lighting, frequently depict elegantly dressed figures in ambiguous or intimate settings. Despite achieving commercial success, Vettriano's work has been met with mixed critical reception, with some art critics dismissing it as overly sentimental or populist. Nevertheless, he has remained a highly popular artist, with his paintings commanding significant prices at auction.

Vettriano exhibited in prestigious venues, including the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and was honoured for his contributions to the arts. His influence extends beyond painting, with his artwork featured in books, film, and popular culture.

Early life

Jack Hoggan was born on 17 November 1951 in the industrial seaside town of Methil, Fife, where he also grew up. He was raised in poverty; he lived with his mother, father and older brother in a spartan miner's house, sharing a bed with his brother and wearing hand-me-down clothes. From the age of 10, his father sent him out delivering papers and milk, cleaning windows and picking potatoes – any job that would earn money. His father took half his earnings.

Hoggan left school at 15 and later became an apprentice mining engineer. For a short time in the late 1960s, he had a summer job as a bingo caller at the Beachcomber Amusements on Leven Promenade. He took up painting as a hobby in the 1970s, when a girlfriend bought him a set of watercolours for his 21st birthday. His earliest paintings, under his birth name Jack Hoggan, were copies or pastiches of impressionist paintings; his first painting was a copy of Claude Monet's '' The Poppy Field near Argenteuil''. Much of his influence came from studying paintings at the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery. In 1984, Hoggan first submitted his work to the Shell-sponsored art exhibition in the museum.

In 1987, when he was 36, Hoggan left his wife Gail, seeking to emulate Paul Gauguin. He quit his job in educational research and moved to Edinburgh where he adopted his mother's maiden name Vettriano. He applied to study Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh, but his portfolio was rejected.

Career

In 1988, Vettriano submitted two canvases for the Royal Scottish Academy annual show. Both paintings sold on the first day and Vettriano was approached by several galleries. Further exhibitions followed in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. In November 1999, Vettriano's work was shown for the first time in New York City, when 21 paintings were displayed at The International 20th Century Arts Fair at The Armory. More than 40 collectors from the UK flew out for the event and 20 paintings were sold on the opening night.

In 1996 Terence Conran commissioned Vettriano to create a series of paintings for his new Bluebird Gastrodome in London. The seven paintings, inspired by the life of Malcolm Campbell, hung there for 10 years. Heartbreak Publishing, Vettriano's own publishing company, produced a boxed set featuring signed, limited-edition prints of all seven paintings to mark the 75th anniversary of Campbell's final World Land Speed Record. The Bluebird paintings were auctioned by Sotheby's at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire on 30 August 2007 and made more than £1 million in all: the most expensive was ''Bluebird at Bonneville'', bought for £468,000.

Prices and values

His easel paintings cost between £48,000 and £195,000 new. According to ''The Guardian'' he earned £500,000 a year in print royalties. Vettriano's 1992 painting, '' The Singing Butler'', has been the best-selling image in Britain. On 21 April 2004, the original canvas of '' The Singing Butler'' sold at auction for £744,500. It had been rejected in 1992 by the Royal Academy summer exhibition. The composition for the painting, as discovered by Scottish designer Sandy Robb, had been sourced from the ''Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual''.

In April 2010, seven out of ten paintings by Vettriano failed to sell at Sotheby's spring auction of Scottish pictures. Those that sold did so for half their previous prices. Art experts suggested that the monetary value of Vettriano's works needed reassessing.

Studios and publishing

Vettriano had studios in Scotland and London. He was represented by the Portland Gallery, London, from 1993 to 2007, and counted Jack Nicholson, Alex Ferguson, Tim Rice and Robbie Coltrane amongst his collectors. To date, five books have been published about Vettriano, the most recent of which, ''Studio Life'', was published in March 2008. In February 2009, Vettriano launched Heartbreak Publishing and his own London gallery, also called Heartbreak, which exclusively represents him, and also promotes younger artists.

In March 2010, ''Days of Wine And Roses'' was opened by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond at the Kirkcaldy Museum. The exhibition then transferred to Vettriano's gallery in London.

Personal life

Divorced from his first wife, Vettriano divided his time between homes in London, Kirkcaldy, and Nice