The Scot painted singing butlers, ‘broads’ in bras and tough guys in suits, in works critics found lurid, chintzy, devoid of irony and often sexist. But they were also hugely popular – showing the power of ‘I get it’ art

Jack Vettriano: a life in pictures

In 1992, Jack Vettriano’s painting The Singing Butler was rejected by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Anyone who has seen some of the dross picked for display in the RA’s annual open submission collision of amateur artists and big stars in recent decades will be thinking: “Ouch, must’ve been a real dud.” But The Singing Butler not only wasn’t a dud, it went on to become one of the most ubiquitous and – whisper it – iconic British paintings since the second world war.

And that tells you a lot about the Scottish artist, who has died at the age of 73. The art establishment has always despised him, but the rest of the world – if you can accept some awkward, problematic conception of “ordinary people” – absolutely lapped up his art. He wasn’t a household name like Tracey Emin or David Hockney. He wasn’t lauded by the art world. He sure wasn’t celebrated by critics. Vettriano was something else, something almost sinful – he was popular.