Notes

Jack Vettriano is a Scottish artist known for the pared down realism of his erotic film-noir style. Paintings of lonely men and women in interior settings have come to define his oeuvre. Featuring his typically smooth brushwork, Betrayal – No Turning Back is an example of the artist’s ambiguous sense of narrative that leaves things open to the viewer’s interpretation. Vettriano was initially shunned by the formal art establishment, perhaps because he is entirely self-taught, but over the past 30 years he has acquired a devoted global following. The year 2004 was exceptional in Vettriano’s career as his best-known painting, The Singing Butler, was sold at Sotheby’s for close to £750,000 and he was awarded an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts.

Provenance

Everard Read, Johannesburg.