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In 2003, Jack Vettriano was awarded an Honorary doctorate from St
Andrew’s University and an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts. In
April 2004 ‘The Singing Butler’ was sold at Sotheby’s for in excess of
£750,000, a record breaking price for a painting by a Scottish artist.
In 2009, Vettriano was commissioned by the Yacht Club of Monaco to
create a series of paintings to mark the centenary of their world famous
yacht, Tuiga. The subsequent exhibition, ‘Homage a Tuiga‘, premiered
in Monaco as part of Classic Yacht Week in September 2009, before
touring to the UK in 2010. In March 2010, Days of Wine and Roses was
opened by Scotland’s then First Minister the Rt Hon Alex Salmond SNP
at the Kirkcaldy Museum, then transferred to London. Later that year,
Sir Jackie Stewart presented Vettriano with the Great Scot of the Year
Award which led to a Motion in Parliament calling for his contribution
to Scottish culture to be recognised.
In February 2011 it was announced that Vettriano’s self-portrait The
Weight would be displayed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Then in January 2012, menswear brand Stefano Ricci launched its Spring
Summer 2012 collection entitled ‘Stefano Ricci - a tribute to Vettriano’,
using images by the artist and photographic re-interpretations shot by
Fredi Marcarini featuring clothes and accessories from the Ricci 2012
collection. This same year ‘The Singing Butler’ went on display at the
Aberdeen Art Gallery as part of an exhibition entitled, ‘From Van Gogh
to Vettriano’.
Vettriano’s 2013/2014 Retrospective at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and
Museum in Glasgow attracted huge attention and cemented his status
as one of the world’s most popular artists. With studios in Scotland,
London and the south of France, he counts Jack Nicholson, Sir Alex
Ferguson, Sir Tim Rice and Robbie Coltrane amongst his collectors.