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Jack Vettriano, ‘Singing Butler’ Painter, Dies at 73
Critics largely rejected his work, but when it was last sold in 2004, “The Singing Butler” was the most valuable piece of art to ever emerge from Scotland.
Jack Vettriano, a self-taught Scottish painter best known for “The Singing Butler,” who overcame critical derision to become one of the best selling painters in Europe, has died. He was 73.
His death was announced in a statement on his website, which did not cite a cause or say when or where he died.
Mr. Vettriano, a Neorealist painter with a penchant for eroticism, often depicted ordinary people, particularly glamorous women, in intimate situations with Scotland as the backdrop. Fans of his work included the actor Jack Nicholson and the songwriter Tim Rice, but critics savaged his work as lowbrow and, at times, chauvinistic.
‘The Singing Butler’ initially sold for a fraction of its ultimate value.
“The Singing Butler” was one of the first paintings Mr. Vettriano sold after he became a professional artist. In 1992, it sold — by his account — for 3,000 pounds, or about $1,270 at today’s exchange rate. “A thousand went to the auction house, a thousand to the taxman and I was left with £1,000,” he told The Sunday Post in 2021.
This was early in Mr. Vettriano’s career, though he was already in his 40s. He had sold only a few paintings by then.
“The Singing Butler” was sold again at auction in 2004, this time for around £750,000, making it the most valuable work of art to emerge from Scotland at the time.
