Jack Vettriano painting on display for first time in two decades
The Singing Butler: on public display for first time in 20 years
JACK Vettriano’s iconic painting The Singing Butler goes on public display today for the first time in 20 years.
The oil painting of a couple dancing on a beach while a butler holds an umbrella over them goes on show as part of the From Van Gogh to Vettriano - Hidden Gems from Private Collections exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery.
The work, which set a Scottish record when it sold at auction for £745,000 at Sotheby’s in London in 2004, has been loaned to the gallery for the exhibition by a private collector in Scotland.
Last night Vettriano told The Scotsman that he never imagined that when he painted The Singing Butler it would still interest people and that for it to re-appear alongside works by the likes of Vincent Van Gogh was “a fate I could never have predicted nor dared to wish for it”.
The majority of the 61 paintings and one sculpture on show, including the Vettriano, are on loan from private art collectors in the north-east of Scotland and cover both Scottish and international exhibits from the 1870s to the present day.
The Van Gogh work, Un homme assis avec fillette (1882), in black chalk and pencil on paper, is one of the artist’s early drawings from when he was living in the Netherlands and features an elderly man and a girl.
The exhibition, which is free of charge, encompasses a wide range of styles and includes works by Camille Pissaro, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Stanley Spencer, Paul Nash, Lucian Freud and RB Kitaj.
Scottish artists include EA Hornel, William McTaggart, Joseph Farquharson, SJ Peploe and JD Fergusson.
Dr Jennifer Melville, lead curator of art at Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, said having Vettriano and Van Gogh as the main attractions would attract a wide range of visitors.
“There has been a long debate about Vettriano’s work and The Singing Butler will be one of the main draws,” she said. “What we have here is a broad spectrum of art and something which many people will find challenging. It really will encompass the varied taste of visitors.
“I got the works through personal contacts with the collectors. We approached the owners and it was all quite straightforward.
“But it can be difficult to give up a prized collection, even on loan, and be left rattling around with empty walls.”
Fife-born Vettriano has said he regards Van Gogh as one of his artistic heroes and that his work had been “fundamental in my spiritual awakening”.
Vettriano said: “When I first painted it, I never imagined that The Singing Butler would still be of interest to people more than 20 years later.
“For it to now reappear in an exhibition featuring work by such an illustrious group of artists, including some personal heroes of mine, is a fate I could never have predicted nor dared to wish for it. I feel both honoured and humbled to be placed in this peer group.
“I had the privilege of an early look at the exhibition yesterday and would urge people to visit it – there is the most gorgeous Peploe, which alone makes the trip worthwhile. A great idea, to encourage private collectors to share their treasured possessions with the public and I do hope lots of people go to see these paintings before they disappear back behind private doors once more.”
• From Van Gogh to Vettriano – Hidden Gems from Private Collections, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 4 February -14 April 2012. Free.
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Comments
There are 22 comments to this article
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allymax
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 05:01 AM#8 albanman, and #11 Glossa; all genius works of art 'hold' hidden secrets that only the artist truly understands. For instance Michelangelo Buonarroti's 'Moses' at the tomb of Pope Julius II, has one leg longer than the other, one arm structurally configured than the other, and lots of 'hidden' meanings in the head, hands and feet. Has either of you had a good look at Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' ?? That has many many hidden mysteries; but I'm not going to spoil your fun telling you what they are. Enjoy gentlemen; artists do that kind of thing all the time. Why do you think Magritte called his work 'The Son of Man' ? Here's a clue, it's in the Scriptures ! allymax.
bamboo
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:48 PM#18 If art is "to create debate and comment", then Ryan Giggs having an affair with his sister-in-law must put him up there with Giotto. Vettriano makes entirely inoffensive pictures that will look right at home over a ceramic leopard ornament on the mantelpiece.
twosheds72
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:31 PM18: I can assure you Vettriano (or Jack Duggan as he was then) would not have got into a Scottish art school in the seventies.I did, and students were required to do lots of life drawing from models.Jack cannot draw hence his reliance of slavishly copying photos.I'm just stating a fact,one that he admits. He is the modern day Trechikoff.the Russian artist who's prints, such as the Green Lady, were everywhere in the sixties and seventies.He is now largely forgotten. I fear it may not be such a good idea for Jack to have his work next to painters like Lucien Freud.The sheer power of Freud's work will blow Jack's effort away.As for comparing him to Van Gogh, that's laughable.It's like East Fife v. Ajax Amsterdam.No contest.
langtounlass
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 03:07 PMI think there are one or two of his pieces that are of merit, but some of the rest are dross, although that goes for most artists. I worked in a London gallery for a while and our artists would say for every good painting they sold they had 10 bad ones in the attic. I also think I'm maybe one of the few people in Kirkcaldy who doesn't have a cheap Vettriano print on one of their walls. I just hate cheap prints, sorry.
Rob I
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 02:56 PMIt would be interesting see what talent, if any, these negative posters of Vettriano's works have. If art is to create debate and comment, then Mr. Vettriano is a run away success . I very much like his work and it is obvious that many others do as well. I only wish I could afford it. I am satisfied with my signed Vettriano book instead. How many times have these self appointed "experts" been outed as not knowing their elbow from a hole in the ground? Answer; all too often. By way of support, I say to Mr. Vettriano, illegitimi non carborundum.
samcoldstream
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:32 PM"Jack Vettriano is adored by millions around the world who couldn't care less what the art critics think about his work. Vettriano's income alone from his popular prints and posters is believed to earn him around £3.2 million annually. His original works are collected by the wealthy good and great. The artist's original self portrait 'The Weight' has been loaned for three years to the newly refurbished Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, and according to the curator attracts more viewers than any other work." (Source: The Times Art Critic Rachel Campbell-Johnston)
Mercutio
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 12:16 PM#12 albanman: The David's relatively large hands are NOT a mistake, the head is also large in relation to the rest of the statue. This was because the David was originally sculpted to be sited outside in the Piazza della Signoria. When looking at the copy which now stands in the piazza these mistakes as you call them are less easily discerned.I love Michelangelo and I quite like Vettriano.
samcoldstream
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:15 AMPriceless Athena-fodder.
bamboo
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 11:02 AMWhimsical Athena-fodder
David Ban
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:53 AMI used to dance like that- never one for accuracy, but enjoyed the girl!!
albanman
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:30 AMNo.11 Glossa: Although there is a careless mistake in the leading of the dance,I do agree that it is a nice painting; not a masterpiece but quite charming. As for the woman's arm, I think that you are correct about being probably wrong :) However, your comment reminded me of Michelangelo's magnificent "David" where the hands are much too large for the body. Even masters make mistakes.
Glossa
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:06 AMI do love this picture and have had a print of it hanging in my lounge for years. Is it my imagination though, or is the right arm of the woman dancing , rather too long. I cannot help thinking that if she put it down by her side it would come well past her knee. Am I wrong? Probably!
FTH22inarow
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:58 AMIts a nice poster.
Hearthammer
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:48 AMI think it's excellent. There again, like politics, I prefer things that make you think!
albanman
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 09:40 AMI've read that this painting is actually based on one that Vettriano did from a book, but in doing so he made a careless mistake: the woman is leading the dance, a faux pas that would never have happened in the upper class circles portrayed in the painting.
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