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At the request of reader Emily Peck, today’s “Feel Art Again” post features Jack Vettriano’s popular painting, “The Singing Butler.” Vettriano’s enormous success came as a surprise even to himself—he has remarked, “I get all the more pleasure because I never thought it was going to happen.” Some background on his life and career:
1. Having left school at age 16, Jack Vettriano never attended art school. Instead, he is completely self-taught, having taken 14 years since he first received a set of watercolors to hone his skills before showing any of his artwork. Of how he learned to paint, Vettriano has said, “I trained myself to paint by copying other artists… I put all these different styles in a pot and there was a certain alchemy that took place and it created my individual style. Something unique came out, and I’m very grateful for that.”
2. Today, “The Singing Butler” is a wildly popular and commercially successful painting: it sells more posters and postcards than any other work in the UK and the original canvas sold at auction for £744,500 four years ago. It was rejected by the Royal Academy, though, when Vettriano submitted it for the summer show in 1992.
3. A music video made by the indie Scottish band Saint Jude’s Infirmary for BBC Scotland’s “The Music Show” features Vettriano and visually references both “The Singing Butler” and “Elegy for a Dead Admiral,” another Vettriano painting. The video is for the song “Goodbye Jack Vettriano,” which Saint Jude’s Infirmary member Grant Campbell wrote when he spotted a Vettriano print on a pub wall while he was homesick in Rotterdam. Vettriano has described the song as “really brilliant” and has created a painting to be featured as the cover of the band’s second album. (He’s also featured on the album.)
4. Vettriano established a scholarship at St. Andrew’s University in 2004 for students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend college, like he himself wasn’t able to. A Jack Vettriano Scholar is appointed every four years; the first began studies in September 2004, so the second would have begun this year. Vettriano has a long-standing relationship with St. Andrew’s, having also refurbished the Student Association’s Old Union Coffee Bar in 2002, been involved in student fashion shows, and been named an (honorary) Doctor of Letters.
5. Vettriano’s success has come at a cost. According to some sources, the success and attention he received after his first Royal Scottish Academy show contributed to the break-up of his marriage. Fellow Scottish artists are jealous of the commercial success Vettriano has achieved, to which Vettriano replies, “Artists say, how can I get only X for my work and Vettriano gets X thousand for his? Think, you stupid bugger. It’s not a bit about being a better painter than me, it’s about market forces.” Additionally, he’s been passed over by the National Galleries of Scotland and much of the art establishment.
A larger version of “The Singing Butler” is available here.
Fans should check out Vettriano’s Web site and Allan and Iryna Ewart’s screenplay based on “The Singing Butler.”
“Feel Art Again” appears every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. You can e-mail us at feelartagain@gmail.com with artist suggestions or details of current exhibitions.
Comments (11)
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I’ve always been really attracted to that painting, but felt vaguely guilty for it, since my art education had taught me to steer clear of anything at all “commercial”.
Now I don’t feel at all bad!
posted by Alice on 10-21-2008 at 11:43 pm
Vettriano is an odd odd duck. My wife and I have several prints of his, focusing on the more . . . provocative side of his work.
For anyone who thinks Vettriano is only “The Singing Butler” guy, his more fetishistic work is striking.
posted by EMStoveken on 10-22-2008 at 8:26 am
You didn’t mention the little scandal about some of the figures in his paintings. I’m sure I saw something about it on UK TV.
Apparently, he basically copied many of the figures in his works from some how-to-draw people book for artists. He copied them so closely, if they’d have been sentences, he would have been accused of plagiarism.
So much for creativity.
posted by Valerie on 10-22-2008 at 8:50 am
plagiarism or not, I love his work.
posted by susan on 10-22-2008 at 8:58 am
Valerie: Vettriano used “The Illustrator’s Figure Reference Manual” for many of his early paintings, since he couldn’t afford models. While some people see it as plagiarism, Vettriano and others contend that he only used the book for its intended purpose. The woman who posed for the image Vettriano used for “The Singing Butler” has stated, “The book was designed for artists who couldn’t afford life models and he’d used it as it was intended.”
posted by Andréa Fernandes on 10-22-2008 at 10:02 am
I love his work too! I have that painting hanging in the family room, above the fireplace.
posted by CK on 10-22-2008 at 12:05 pm
My wife found the Singing Butler print in a shop in Nags Head North Carolina and instantly loved it. I went online and checked out some other works. While his paintings may not be highbrow, there is an appealing quality to them. I guess one of the aspects I like the most is that he seems to capture a moment in time, which may leave the viewer to fill in the prologue and epilogue.
posted by Tim on 10-22-2008 at 12:25 pm
These posts (today’s and others) and the resulting comments show that art is very subjective, and that there is no shame in liking art that others might find low-brow. If we like it, if it ellicits happiness or passion, then there is obviously value in it. For my part, I like Vettriano’s work… and it apears I am in good company!
posted by Therese on 10-22-2008 at 2:56 pm
” Fellow Scottish artists are jealous of the commercial success Vettriano has achieved, ”
Not true, as a self-taught artist from the next town, I think he has given the Scottish Art scene a bit of a boost. Good on ‘im.
posted by scotlandinoils on 10-22-2008 at 5:12 pm
The “Singing Butler” painting caused me to explore more of Vettriano’s work. I’ve got a print of “Amateur Philosophers” that is one of my most favorite images ever.
posted by bre on 10-25-2008 at 8:14 pm
Hello. I work for the artist, Jack Vettriano, both here in London and when he is at his studio in France. As well as having his main websie, Jack has also recently launched a new publishing website, which has been set up to promote he work of new artists as well as to distribute his own published works directly to his fans.
Heartbreak Publishing
Isabelle
posted by Isabelle Delacroix on 2-21-2009 at 12:40 pm