Jack Vettriano
Born November 17, 1951 in Fife, Scotland.
Originally Jack Hoggan, Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining engineer in the local coalfields. For his twenty-first birthday a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints
..........
......... (Self Portrait)
and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.
xxxxx
Vettriano's breakthrough year was 1988, when he felt ready to display his paintings in public and submitted two canvases for the Royal Scottish Academy annual show. Both paintings sold on the first day and Vettriano was approached by several galleries who wanted to sell his other work. The success and attention contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage and he moved to Edinburgh, changing his name to Vettriano, his mother's maiden name.
In the last nine years interest in, and desire for his work, has grown rapidly. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. In November 1999, Vettriano’s work was shown for the first time in New York, when twenty paintings were displayed at The International 20th Century Arts Fair at The Armory. Fifty collectors from the UK flew out for the opening night of the Fair and all twenty paintings were sold out within an hour of the opening.
Aside from his exhibitions, Vettriano has acquired a vast following of fans through the posters and prints of his paintings that are distributed worldwide. Paintings by Jack Vettriano can be found in private, corporate and public collections worldwide.
