Jack Vettriano (born Jack Hoggan) was born on November 17, 1951 in Methil, Fife, United Kingdom. He was raised in poverty; he lived with his mother, father and older brother in a spartan miner’s cottage, sharing a bed with his brother and wearing hand-me-down clothes.
From the age of ten, 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.
Vettriano left school at sixteen, and later became an apprentice mining engineer in Methil, Fife, United Kingdom.
For his twenty-first birthday, a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint. Moreover, he was rejected from the University of Edinburgh Fine Arts program.
However, he was made a Doctor of Letters by the University of St Andrews in St Andrews, Fife, United Kingdom.
For a short time in the late 1960s, Jack Vettriano had a summer job as a bingo caller at the Beachcomber Amusements in Leven, United Kingdom.
His earliest paintings, under his birth name "Jack Hoggan", were copies or pastiches of impressionist paintings; his first painting was a copy of Monet's "Poppy Fields". Much of his influence came from studying paintings at the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery. In 1984, Vettriano first submitted his work to the Shell-sponsored art exhibition in the museum.
In 1987, he quit his job in educational research, and moved to Edinburgh.
Vettriano submitted two canvases for the Royal Scottish Academy annual show in 1989. Both paintings were sold on the first day, and Vettriano was approached by several galleries. Further exhibitions took place at the Edinburgh Gallery in 1992 in Edinburgh, at the Portland Gallery in London, at the Kirkcaldy Museum in Fife, and the National Gallery of Scotland, and also abroad, including 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 United Kingdom flew out for the event and 20 paintings were sold on the opening night.
In 1996, Sir 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 Sir Malcolm Campbell, hung there for ten years.
Vettriano was represented by the Portland Gallery, London from 1993 to 2007. In 2008, he undertook a variety of private projects, including the launch of a new book "Studio Life" and commissions to paint portraits of Sir Jackie Stewart and Zara Phillips.
In February 2009, Vettriano launched Heartbreak Publishing and his own London gallery, also called Heartbreak, which exclusively represents him, but still 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.
However, 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.
In February 2011, it was announced that Vettriano's self-portrait The Weight would be displayed at the re-opened Scottish National Portrait Gallery from November 2011, the first time he had exhibited at a national gallery.
"The Ballroom Spy" exhibition was opened in May 2011 at Vettriano's gallery Heartbreak - a new exhibition by Vettriano in collaboration with the photographer, Jeanette Jones. In July 2011, the exhibition transferred to the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.
In February 2012, Vettriano's most famous painting "The Singing Butler" went on display at the Aberdeen Art Gallery as part of an exhibition entitled "From Van Gogh to Vettriano".
A major exhibition "Jack Vettriano: A Retrospective" was opened at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in September 2013. It featured over 100 works and ran until 23 February 2014.
Vettriano established his own publishing company called Jack Vettriano Publishing Limited in April 2015.
In addition, he was one of three artists commissioned to paint portraits of Scottish comedian Billy Connolly to celebrate Connolly's 75th birthday in 2017. These were then put on display in Glasgow's People's Gallery, while the images were transferred to murals in the centre of Glasgow. Vettriano's mural is located in Dixon Street, off St Enoch Square.
Jack Vettriano has studios in Scotland and London. Currently, he lives and works in London, United Kingdom.
Jack Vettriano is regarded as one the most-loved painters of our time, best known for his film noir-style, erotic paintings of men and women. His 1992 painting "The Singing Butler" became a best-selling image in the United Kingdom, being sold for nearly £750,000 at Sotheby’s in 2004.
The same year he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
His Bluebird paintings were auctioned by Sotheby's at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire on 30 August 2007, and made more than £1m in all: the most expensive was "Bluebird at Bonneville", bought for £468,000.
On March 24, 2010, Sir Jackie Stewart presented Vettriano with the Great Scot of the Year Award. The award ceremony was held at the Boisdale Club in London.
Another Kind Of Love
not identified
Heartbreak Hotel
Model in the Studio
The Altar Of Memory
Midnight Blue
Feeding Frenzy
One Moment In Time
Self-Portrait
At Last my Lovely
Dressed to Kill
Sweet Bird of Youth
Mr. Cool
Games of Power
The Singing Butler
The Big Tease
Lunchtime Lovers
The Billy Boys
The Blue Gown
Queen of the Fan-Dan
A Uninvited Guest
Heatwave
The Administration of Justice
Passion Overflow
Walzers
The Shape Of Things To Come
Words of Wisdom
Night Geometry
Girls Night
Models In The Studio
Valentine Rose
Private Dancer
The Trap
Winter Light And Lavender
His Favourite Girl
Model in Black
Artist and Model
Amateur Philosophers
The Game of Life
Elegy for The Dead Admiral
Back Where You Belong
Collusion
The Picnic Party
No Safety in Sunshine
Exit
The Direct Approach
Betrayed, First Love
Scarlet Ribbons, Lovely Ribbons
Welcome To My World
The British Are Coming
The Assessment
Betrayal No Turning Back
The Model And The Drifter
Bird On The Wire Jack
The Sparrow and the Hawk
not identified
The Assessors
Narcissistic Bathers
Master Of Ceremonies
Always Someone Watching You
Suddenly One Summer
The Embrace Of The Spider
A Very Dangerous Beach
The Star Cafe
Game Of Power
Round Midnight
Sailors Toy
The Cocktail Shaker
Table For One
Game On
not identified
The Main Attraction
Woman Pursued
The Lying Game
The Picnic Party
Kiss
Dance Me to the End of Love
The Missing Man
The Critical Hour
Ballroom Spy
Rough Trade
The Rooms of a Stranger
And So to Bed
We Can't Tell Right from Wrong
Something in the Air
Strangers In The Night
A Terrible Beauty
The Twilight Zone
Good Days' Sunshine
Heaven or Hell: The Sweetest Choice
A Strange And Tender Magic II
Night In The City
The Party's Over
Wicked Games (detail)
not identified
not identified
Cleo and the Boys II
The Opening Gambit
The Perfectionist
Just The Way It Is
Competition Dancers
Birdy
The Man in the Mirror
The Parlour of Temptation
Between Darkness and Dawn
Oh Happy Days
The Red Room
The Apprentice
not identified
not identified
Mirror Mirror
Self-portrait
The Arrangement
Contemplation of Betrayal 2001
The Letter
Artist & Model
The Remains of Love
The Defenders of Virtue
Cold, Cold Hearts
Yesterday's Dreams
Right Time, Right Place
Shades of Scarlett
Still Dreaming
Good Time Girls
Soho Nights
Mad Dogs
Baby Bye Bye
Working the Lounge
Setting New Standards
not identified
A kind of Loving
Models In The Studio II
Someone To Watch Over Me
Café Days
After Midnight
not identified
Betrayal First Kiss 2001
Men In White Shirts
Pincer Movement
The Cigar Divan
An Imperfect Past
Chelsea Morning (self-portrait)
The Great Poet
Beautiful Losers II (detail)
Mad Dogs (detail)
Queen Of The Waltzer
Self-Portrait
The Innocents
Dancer for Money
How Do You Stop?
A Letter Of Consequence II
The Set Up
Angel
The Road to Nowhere
Only the Deepest Red II
The Purple Cat
The Duelists
The Picnic Party
Sweet in the Night
In 2004 Vettriano set up a scholarship for the University of St Andrews to fund a student who would not otherwise be able to attend university. The scholarship is awarded every four years. The endowment follows his financial contribution towards refurbishing the Students Association's Old Union Coffee Bar in 2002 and his involvement in student fashion shows.
Vettriano has donated several works of art to be sold in aid of charities, including the "Terrence Higgins Trust". In September 2001, he donated a painting "Beautiful Dreamer" to a charity auction, which was held at Sotheby's in aid of Help the Hospices. In 2008, a drawing he made of that subject sold at a charity auction in aid of the Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw Gallery in Llanbedrog, North Wales in July, helping to keep the gallery open.
Vettriano donated a portrait of Zara Phillips, entitled "Olympia", to Sport Relief in 2008. The painting went to a charity fund-raising auction, selling at Bonhams for £36,000.
Also in 2010, Vettriano helped to raise money for the conservation movement "Elephant Family" by participating in an auction of donated elephant sculptures and models. Vettriano's elephant "The Singing Butler Rides Again" was the highest bid-for lot, selling for £155,000.
Quotations:
"I painted beach scenes not because I was feeling nice, but because I wanted to get a particular effect of reflection."
"I live in a world of heartbreak... I just seem to be more creative when in some sort of emotional distress."
Quotes from others about the person
Sandy Moffat: "He can’t paint, he just colours in."
Richard Calvocoressi: "I’d be more than happy to say that we think him an indifferent painter and that he is very low down our list of priorities whether or not we can afford his work, which at the moment we obviously can’t. His ‘popularity’ rests on cheap commercial reproductions of his paintings."
Jonathan Jones: "Vettriano fixes on fetishistic, stylish objects and paints them with a slick, empty panache. The world of Jack Vettriano is a crass male fantasy that might have come straight out of Money by Martin Amis."
David Mach: "If he was a fashion designer Jack would be right up there. It’s all just art world snobbery. Anyway, who cares, he probably makes more money than Damien Hirst anyway."
Vettriano married his first wife Gail in 1980, but the couple divorced in 1887.
