Jack Vettriano: A Life

Vettriano's images are a gateway to a timeless place where past and present intertwine. Daylight scenes of heady optimism, painted against backdrops of beaches and racetracks, are counterbalanced by more disquieting canvases of complex nighttime liaisons in bars, clubs, bedrooms, and ballrooms. Emerging from the unlikely background of the Scottish coalfields, unknown and untutored, Jack Vettriano has become Scotland's most successful and controversial contemporary artist, his painting The Singing Butler selling for close to $1.3 million. Appearing on posters and cards, mugs and umbrellas, prints of his work outsell van Gogh, Dalí, and Monet, and his paintings have been acquired by celebrities around the world.