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{{Short description|1992 painting by Jack Vettriano}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=File:Vettriano, Singing Butler.jpg
| image_upright = 1.4
| title=The Singing Butler
| artist=[[Jack Vettriano]]
| year=1992
| type=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]]
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'''''The Singing Butler''''' is an oil-on-canvas painting made by [[Scottish people|Scottish]] artist [[Jack Vettriano]] in 1992. The painting measures {{cvt|28|x|36|in|cm}}. It depicts a couple in [[White tie|evening dress]] dancing on the damp sand of a beach on the coast of [[Fife]], with grey skies above a low horizon. The man wears a [[dinner jacket]] and [[Court shoe|evening pumps]]; the woman mostly matches the formal dress of her partner by wearing a red [[ball gown]] with matching [[long gloves]], but is in [[Barefoot|bare feet]] instead of wearing shoes. Two attendants to the left and right, a maid and a butler respectively, hold up umbrellas against the weather; the butler is as formally dressed as the male dancer with the addition of a [[bowler hat]], while the maid wears a standard housekeeping uniform with a white apron and clutches her hat against the wind.<ref name=vf28062012>{{cite web |last1=Collins |first1=Amy Fine |author1-link=Amy Fine Collins |title=The Singing Butler Did It |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/07/jack-vettriano-singing-butler-art |website=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |access-date=3 September 2012 |date=28 June 2012}}</ref>

As a contemporary cultural icon, ''The Singing Butler'' has been compared to [[Grant Wood]]'s ''[[American Gothic]]''. Vettriano described the painting as an "uplifting fantasy" and chose the subject after being complimented on his paintings of beaches. He added the servants to balance the painting's composition,<ref name=vf28062012 /> and once claimed that the titular butler is singing ''[[Fly Me to the Moon]]''.<ref name=nyt>{{cite web |last1=Deb |first1=Sopan |title=Jack Vettriano, 'Singing Butler' Painter, Dies at 73 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/arts/jack-vettriano-dead-the-singing-butler.html |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=25 April 2025 |date=3 March 2025}}</ref> The painting has been widely criticised by art critics,<ref name=courier>{{cite web |last1=Brown |first1=Kate |title=The scandal and success behind Fife artist Jack Vettriano's The Singing Butler |url=https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/past-times/4124131/singing-butler-jack-vettriano/ |website=[[The Courier (Dundee)|The Courier]]|location=Dundee|access-date=25 April 2025 |date=7 February 2023}}</ref> but has been popular with the public to the point of being one of the most reproduced paintings in Britain.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3641007.stm|work=[[BBC News]]|title=Vettriano fetches record price|date=20 April 2004|access-date=3 September 2012 }}</ref><ref name=vf28062012 /> ''The Singing Butler'' has been criticised for its uneven finishing,<ref name=vf28062012 /> inconsistent lighting and treatment of wind, and for the odd position of the dancers. The dancers' pose is reversed from a normal [[Closed position|closed]] [[Handhold (dance)|dance hold]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=MacMonagle |first1=Niall |title=The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano |url=https://www.independent.ie/life/the-singing-butler-by-jack-vettriano/29507621.html |website=[[Irish Independent]] |access-date=25 April 2025 |date=19 August 2013}}</ref> Usually, with the man [[Lead and follow|leading]], his left hand would hold the woman's right hand, and he would place his right hand on or below the woman's left shoulder blade, while she places her left hand on his right arm, just below the shoulder.

The painting was first sold in 1992 for £3,000;<ref name=nyt /> it was later sold by the buyer to one Alex Cruickshank in 1998 for £33,000.<ref name=alifep7>{{cite book |last1=Quinn |first1=Anthony |title=Jack Vettriano: A Life |date=5 May 2006 |publisher=Pavilion Books |isbn=1862057249 |page=7}}</ref> In 2003, an oil study for the painting was sold at auction for £89,600<ref name=alifep7 /> while another auction saw the original painting being sold for £90,000.<ref name=BBC/> In April 2004, a further auction of the painting saw it being sold to a private collector for £744,800, a sum which at the time was the record for any Scottish painting and for any painting ever sold in Scotland.<ref name=BBC/> In October 2005, it was reported that Vettriano had used a photographic reference guide, ''The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual'', as a basis for the figures in his painting.<ref name=graun04102005>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/oct/04/arts.artsnews2|work=[[The Guardian]]|title=Vettriano brought to book by illustrator's manual|first=Sam|last=Jones|date=4 October 2005|access-date=16 March 2025|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Cramb |first1=Auslan |title=How Vettriano based Singing Butler on a design manual |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1499866/How-Vettriano-based-Singing-Butler-on-a-design-manual.html |website=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=25 April 2025 |date=4 October 2005}}</ref> Vettriano retorted that [[Francis Bacon (artist)|Francis Bacon]] had the same book in his studio and that [[Picasso]] said that some artists borrowed but he stole,<ref name=vf28062012 /> while his agent Tom Hewlett said that it was not surprising that a self-taught artist like Vettriano would consult reference works during the early stages of his career.<ref name=graun04102005 /> [[Orla Brady]], who portrayed the female dancer in the original ''Figure Reference Manual'' photograph, also came to Vettriano's defence.<ref name=courier />

Both ''The Singing Butler'' and its sister painting ''Dancer in Emerald'' were included in Vettriano's first London exhibition, God's Children, at the [[Mall Galleries]] in October 1992.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Singing Butler |url=https://www.jackvettriano.com/the-singing-butler/ |website=[[Jack Vettriano]] |access-date=25 April 2025}}</ref><ref name=emerald>{{cite web |title=Dancer In Emerald |url=https://www.jackvettriano.com/dancer-in-emerald/ |website=[[Jack Vettriano]] |access-date=25 April 2025}}</ref> The original painting of ''The Singing Butler'' was displayed at [[Aberdeen Art Gallery]] in February 2012, its first public exhibition for twenty years, as part of an exhibition entitled ''From Van Gogh to Vettriano - Hidden Gems from Private Collections''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vettriano's Singing Butler in rare exhibition |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16887384 |website=[[BBC News]] |access-date=3 September 2012 |date=4 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Shân |title=Jack Vettriano painting on display for first time in two decades |url=http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/jack-vettriano-painting-on-display-for-first-time-in-two-decades-1-2096541 |website=[[The Scotsman]] |access-date=3 September 2012 |date=4 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13046561.vettrianos-singing-butler-public-display/|work=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]|location=Glasgow|title=Vettriano's The Singing Butler on public display|date=5 February 2012|access-date=16 March 2025}}</ref> The exhibition was well attended.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-17459050|work=[[BBC News]]|title=Aberdeen art gallery to open late to cope with record visitors|date=21 March 2012|access-date=16 March 2025}}</ref>

==Derivative works==
An alternative version, variously referred to as ''The Singing Butler II'' or ''Dancer in Emerald'',<ref name=emerald /> only features the dancing couple and the butler, with the woman wearing a green dress and gloves instead of the red articles in the original version (her feet, however, remain bare).<ref>{{cite web |title=Identity of The Singing Butler muse revealed |url=https://www.jackvettriano.com/identity-of-the-singing-butler-muse-revealed/ |website=[[Jack Vettriano]] |access-date=25 April 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Quinn |first1=Anthony |title=Jack Vettriano: A Life |date=5 May 2006 |publisher=Pavilion Books |isbn=1862057249 |page=30}}</ref> In 2005, [[Banksy]] produced a parody version entitled "Crude Oil (Vettriano)" in which the maid is replaced by two figures in hazmat suits with an oil drum, while an oil tanker is shown sinking in the distance. [[Mark Hoppus]] bought Banksy's painting in 2011, and would later put it up for auction in March 2025 where it was sold for £4.3 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn7vd63z2zpo|work=[[BBC News]]|title=Banksy take on Vettriano work sells for £4.3m|date=4 March 2025|access-date=16 March 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Banksy "Crude Oil (Vettriano)" painting from collection of Blink-182 bassist sells for $5.5 million |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/painting-auction-banksy-art-for-sale-blink-182/ |website=[[CBS News]] |access-date=25 April 2025 |date=4 March 2025}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Portal|1990s}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Singing Butler}}
[[Category:1992 paintings]]
[[Category:Dance in art]]
[[Category:Scottish paintings]]
[[Category:Works set on beaches]]
[[Category:Umbrellas]]
[[Category:Oil on canvas paintings]]

The Singing Butler - Revision history

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