Alex is a fan, but MSPs still give Vettriano the brush-off

The First Minister asked the former miner, who has been hailed as Scotland's most successful living artist, to produce the image for his official Christmas card.

But MSPs on the Scottish Parliament's arts advisory group have blocked moves to include his work in Holyrood's art collection.

Prints and posters of Mr Vettriano's work are bestsellers across the UK and his most famous painting, The Singing Butler, sold for 750,000, but none of his pictures are on display in any public gallery outside his native Fife.

Tory MSP Ted Brocklebank put forward his name earlier this year as one of several artists who should be represented in the Scottish Parliament's collection, but he failed to win enough support.

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He said he hoped the First Minister's use of the specially-commissioned Let's Twist Again, which shows a glamorous couple dancing at a Christmas party, might prompt a change of heart.

Mr Brocklebank said: "If a man can sell as many paintings as he has, he must have something. Our parliament should be a place which represents the best of contemporary Scotland."

He said he was sure an arrangement could be made to have a painting on loan, but none of the other MSPs on the art group showed any sign of reversing their decision.

One claimed Mr Salmond's decision to hold the launch for his Christmas card at the National Gallery looked like an attempt to bounce the gallery into adding Vettriano to its collection. Borders Lib Dem MSP Jeremy Purvis said: "I think what the First Minister did was getting too close to politicians trying to dictate what is in the national collection.

"I can't see any other reason for him asking to hold the launch at the National Gallery."

Mr Purvis said the parliament's art group had been right to reject Vettriano.

"I'm not a fan," he said. "The art group made a decision and I don't see there are any grounds for changing that."

Lothians Green MSP Robin Harper, who chairs the art group, said any further consideration would be for a new group after next year's election.

"I like them, but I don't think they do anything for me in terms of giving me a different view of the world."

Mr Vettriano, who is self-taught, denied accusations of plagiarism in 2005 after reports he had copied some figures for The Singing Butler from an art book. He has claimed the art establishment is jealous because he came in through the "back door".