Jack Vettriano, Renowned Scottish Painter, Passes Away at 73

LONDON (Reuters) - Jack Vettriano, the self-taught Scottish painter best known for the work "The Singing Butler", has died aged 73, his publicist said on Monday.

Vettriano was found dead at his apartment in the southern French city of Nice on Saturday. Local media said there were no suspicious circumstances around his death.

"He was not only an extraordinary artist but also a deeply private and humble man who was endlessly grateful for the support and admiration of those who loved his work," Vettriano's publicist Jack Freud said in a statement.

"His paintings - capturing moments of intrigue, romance, and nostalgia - touched the hearts of so many around the world, and his legacy will live on through them".

Born into a poor coal mining family in the Scottish seaside town of Methil, Vettriano took up painting after a girlfriend gave him a box of watercolours for his 21st birthday.

His 1992 work "The Singing Butler", which depicts a stylish couple dancing on a storm-swept beach as their butler and maid hold umbrellas nearby, fetched 744,800 pounds ($944,4000) at a 2004 auction, a Scottish record at the time.

A reinterpretation of the work by street artist Banksy is expected to sell at a London auction later this week for 3-5 million pounds.

MINING ROOTS

Although Vettriano's work won many fans and famous buyers, he was never fully embraced by the art establishment, with some critics considering his work too crude.

He thought critics had a "fairly arrogant stance" towards him, telling Reuters in 2004: "There is jealousy, envy, the fact that they had nothing to do with training me, and the fact that I am popular. All of these things fuel their attitude."

Born in 1951 as Jack Hoggan, he left school at 15 and followed his father down into the coal mines.

Realising that was not the life he wanted, he eventually taught himself painting, inspired by works at the local Kirkcaldy art gallery, and adopted his mother's maiden name.

He got his break in 1988 when two canvasses he submitted to the Royal Scottish Academy annual show sold on the first day. His prints would later begin earning him well over 500,000 pounds a year in royalties.

Vettriano's later work became more overtly erotic, reflecting his own hedonistic lifestyle which included drug and alcohol problems.

"I am a melancholic romantic. My paintings are an adoration of women. They are also partly biographical. Sex is so fundamental to our lives," he said in 2004.

"I paint these people because I am drawn to them. They are motivated by sex, and we all know where that ends. These are not happy people".

($1 = 0.7886 pounds)

(Writing by Sam Tabahriti, Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)