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First Paintings
Vettriano's first paintings were pastiche copies of the Impressionists;
his first painting was a copy of Monet's Poppy Fields. From this
he moved to Picasso and Salvador Dali. He quickly learned how to copy
originals, but gradually became more concerned to discover his own style
and subject matter. In 1979 he had amassed enough works to hold his own
exhibition, not in the UK, but Bahrain, where he had secured a job as
a management consultant. No-one bought any of the paintings, but this
did not disturb the artist who said 'I was just painting for myself'.
He moved back to Scotland in 1981, married and began to spend more of
his spare time painting. The search to find his own artistic style became
an obsession. 'I didn't want to spend my life copying other people. I
knew I had to start thinking about those things that meant something to
me'. He became introspective, his friendships and marriage took a back
seat.
Discovering His Style As a Painter
Sometime in the mid 1980s, Vettriano had a Eureka moment, realising
that his subject matter had been in front of him the whole time - his
lifelong obsession with women, particularly women who dressed in a provocative
manner with stockings, low cut tops and vivid red lipstick. His second
obsession was nostalgia for places of the past, dance halls, railway stations
and beach fronts. His first two important paintings: Portrait of Gail
and Saturday Night were submitted to the Royal Scottish Academy
in 1988. Both paintings sold within 15 minutes of the opening. His first
artistic success however was offset by the collapse of his marriage. Leaving
the family home, he moved into a small studio and for the first time in
his life, painted all day. Up until this point, he had signed his paintings
Jack Hogan, his father's name, but from this time forward changed it to
Vettriano, his mother's maiden name. As a result of his Academy success,
Vettriano was now courted by galleries and suddenly found he had orders
to fulfil.
First Exhibitions
In 1991 the Solstice Gallery in Edinburgh tried to convince Vettriano
to agree to a solo show, but the artist did not yet feel confident enough.
Instead he agreed to a joint show with the artist Joan Renton, as part
of the Edinburgh Festival. The exhibition was an overwhelming success
and in May 1992 Vettriano held his first solo show, Tales of Love and
Other Stories at the Edinburgh Gallery, Dundas Street. One of his
popular paintings from this show was A Kind of Loving, a man standing
in front of a row of mannequins, embracing them with a lover’s zeal.
The artist wrote of his inspiration 'Here is a man so involved in his
own world that he doesn't have time for relationships, he's not good at
them. But he loves to look at the female form, so he keeps these dresses
in his home which he now and then takes out to gaze at'.
Genre Paintings By Vettriano (1987-1993)
Popular early examples of Vettriano's nostalgic representational
art include Queen of the Fan-Dan: a red-jacked madam is surrounded
by her clients, holding a candelabrum to light their cigarettes. Other
works from this period include Cleo and The Boys; Evening Racing;
The Star Cafe; A Very Dangerous Beach; Amateur Philosophers;
Right Time, Right Place; Narcissistic Bathers and Mad Dogs.
These paintings began to establish Vettriano as one of Britain's most
popular realist artists.
As Tom Hewlett of the Portland Gallery wrote of Vettriano's paintings:
'What attracted me is the narrative realism
of his painting...like reading a book, your mind puts together the scene
as described by the author...it enables the viewer to engage with the
painting and then develop it'. Vettriano's love of manipulating light
and dark, no doubt influenced by Rembrandt's mastery of chiaroscuro,
is one of the characteristics of his works.
The Singing Butler
In 2004 Vettriano's painting The Singing Butler, became Scotland's
most expensive painting ever sold at auction. Originally exhibited in
the Solstice Gallery in 1992, the painting sold for £3,000, after
being rejected by the Scottish Arts Council and by the Royal
Academy of Art in London. In 1998 the painting was sold again for
£33,000. The day after the 2004 Sotheby sale the Scotsman Newspaper
ran a feature canvassing art experts, curators, writers, painters, even
a butler on what they thought of Vettriano. The reaction was very positive,
and gradually his work has achieved recognition by the critics. The
Singing Butler depicts a male butler and maid holding umbrellas while
their Master and Mistress dance on the beach. Research has shown that
the figure drawing in the painting
was 'lifted' from an Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual. Vettriano
admitted that he used such sources in early years as he could not afford
to hire models. In 2010 the artist commented that he does not want to
be remembered for The Singing Butler, but would rather be known
for his interior paintings.
Mature Works
In 1999 Vettriano showed his work for the first time in New York, when
21 paintings were shown at the International 20th Century Arts Fair
at The Armory. More than 40 collectors flew out from London to attend
the show, and all paintings sold on the opening night. Film and Film Noir
has played an important part in shaping Vettriano's later works. The
Billy Boys, a group of 4 men walking along a beach, is a title taken
from a poster of Quentin Tarantino's film Reservoir Dogs. Around
this time, he moved to a Georgian house in Edinburgh, and painted the
walls a dramatic crimson. Many of his paintings from this time onwards
tend to be set in interior locations: A Mutal Understanding; The
Trap; The Master of Ceremonies; and We Can't Tell Right
From Wrong. In 2006, Sir Terence Conran commissioned Vettriano to
create a series of paintings for his new Bluebird Club in London. Conran
sold the paintings in 2007 at auction, and they raised more than £1
million.
Posters
Although Vettriano's paintings now regularly fetch prices in the six figures,
it is thought that he earns more from poster
art and from limited editions of his most popular paintings. Editions
of The Singing Butler, in the format of posters, cards and postcards
sell more than any other reproductions in the UK. In 2009 Vettriano launched
his own publishing company, Heartbreak Publishing, to distribute
images on his own and other artist's works. In 2008 Vettriano collaborated
with Formula One legend, Sir Jackie Stewart on a triptych of painting
Tension, Timing Triumph, Monaco 1971. The original painting hangs
in Sir Stewart's private collection, and both men have signed limited
editions prints of the work.
In 2004 Vettriano was awarded the OBE. In 2010, an exhibition of his latest
works Days of Wine and Roses opened at the Kirkcaldy Museum in
Fife, Scotland and transferred later that year to Milan and London. Vettriano
continues to work, dividing his time between Edinburgh and France. His
narrative style continues to draw comparisons to the work of Walter
Sickert and Edward Hopper - and show
influences of Scotland's distinctive colourist traditions. We think Vettriano
is a welcome change from postmodernist
art with all its pretentious novelty and intellectualism.
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