Despite never being truly recognised as a "serious" artist by either the UK's artistic elite or our Academic circles, Jack Vettriano's works have outsold most of our nations great masters and much of the most prominent contemporary artists of our times.
as a self taught painter, whose works are based on traditional figure paintings of the by-gone days of a period stretching from say the 1920s to perhaps the 1960s, his scenes are both enchanting and provocatively narrative.
I stumbled upon his popular painting some years ago when looking at an art gallery in Manchester. Whist highly evocative of a lost era of simplicity and yet sophisticated elegance, there is, I think, a kind of poster style, reminiscent to that which could have been associated to the travel posters used to market the railways or the great shipping lines of the early 20th century. That romantic period when images where rather obviously staged and perhaps idealised. In fact, the notion of romance and idealisation is uniquely present in all the paintings I have seen by him.
Vettriano was born in the early 1950s, into a coal mining community some 17 miles or so north of Edinburgh (as the crow flies), called Methil, the son of miner and whose siblings pretty much all worked down the mine at some stage too. Jack spent his post school days down the pit as well, but started painting around his early twenties.
I suspect that perhaps the squalled conditions that he had to witness whilst growing up in this bleak seaside mining and fishing village, were reason enough for him to dream of escaping this place, and his mind no doubt, sought relief from the ashen and blackened environment through the images of such escape through the posters I mention earlier. This is my hypothesis only however, and the only evidence I have right now is my imagined links to his painting's styles and the commercial art likely to be around him during his childhood. I need to find a little more evidence to justify my theory of course, but here are a few of what I think were some of Septemus E. Scott, 1923 (New Brighton), and Wilton William's posters for LMS / LNER etc.
Poster images courtesy of National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library
One of Jack Vettriano's most famous paintings is the Singing Butler, which has outsold almost all other paintings in the UK. it is quoted as;
Without any doubt in my mind, his earlier works and indeed, many subsequent works are highly influenced by a classic Art-Deco style, with a more detailed colour palette to create what I would call a pseudo Art-Deco that fits well in today's fashion / vogue. Nevertheless, he has captured an immense following of fans and appreciation from the general public at large, and I also think that this patronage has been influenced by their own reminiscence of the idealised romantic traveller. I believe his fans can readily identify with their own imagined memories of what romance used to be, and it rings accord to their desires too.
Now a lesson should be learned from this, I say to myself.... It's by making something that people want, - that makes money... As an artist, one has to ask oneself, 'Do you want to make money, or a personal communication of an idea'?... I think the two are sometimes confused.
as a self taught painter, whose works are based on traditional figure paintings of the by-gone days of a period stretching from say the 1920s to perhaps the 1960s, his scenes are both enchanting and provocatively narrative.
I stumbled upon his popular painting some years ago when looking at an art gallery in Manchester. Whist highly evocative of a lost era of simplicity and yet sophisticated elegance, there is, I think, a kind of poster style, reminiscent to that which could have been associated to the travel posters used to market the railways or the great shipping lines of the early 20th century. That romantic period when images where rather obviously staged and perhaps idealised. In fact, the notion of romance and idealisation is uniquely present in all the paintings I have seen by him.
Vettriano was born in the early 1950s, into a coal mining community some 17 miles or so north of Edinburgh (as the crow flies), called Methil, the son of miner and whose siblings pretty much all worked down the mine at some stage too. Jack spent his post school days down the pit as well, but started painting around his early twenties.
I suspect that perhaps the squalled conditions that he had to witness whilst growing up in this bleak seaside mining and fishing village, were reason enough for him to dream of escaping this place, and his mind no doubt, sought relief from the ashen and blackened environment through the images of such escape through the posters I mention earlier. This is my hypothesis only however, and the only evidence I have right now is my imagined links to his painting's styles and the commercial art likely to be around him during his childhood. I need to find a little more evidence to justify my theory of course, but here are a few of what I think were some of Septemus E. Scott, 1923 (New Brighton), and Wilton William's posters for LMS / LNER etc.
Poster images courtesy of National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library
One of Jack Vettriano's most famous paintings is the Singing Butler, which has outsold almost all other paintings in the UK. it is quoted as;
"The Singing Butler is an oil-on-canvas painting made by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano in 1992. It sold at auction in 2004 for £744,800, which was the record at the time for any Scottish painting, and for any painting ever sold in Scotland. Reproductions of The Singing Butler make it the best-selling art print in the UK." (BBC News, 2004. Reference http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3641007.stm).
Without any doubt in my mind, his earlier works and indeed, many subsequent works are highly influenced by a classic Art-Deco style, with a more detailed colour palette to create what I would call a pseudo Art-Deco that fits well in today's fashion / vogue. Nevertheless, he has captured an immense following of fans and appreciation from the general public at large, and I also think that this patronage has been influenced by their own reminiscence of the idealised romantic traveller. I believe his fans can readily identify with their own imagined memories of what romance used to be, and it rings accord to their desires too.
Now a lesson should be learned from this, I say to myself.... It's by making something that people want, - that makes money... As an artist, one has to ask oneself, 'Do you want to make money, or a personal communication of an idea'?... I think the two are sometimes confused.
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