£500,000 in annual royalty fees

Jack Vettriano's best-known work, The Singing Butler, is not set on a romantic French seaside resort. It took shape on Leven Sands, Scotland, in the shadow of a power station. A study for The Singing Butler sold for £90,000 at auction last year. The painting itself is expected to raise at least twice as much. London's Portland Gallery estimates that images of this work alone earn £500,000 in annual royalty fees. It appears not only on posters and cards but also on umbrellas, mugs, jigsaw puzzles and biscuit tins. It's this sort of merchandising that makes Vettriano Britain's most successful artist, taking a healthy cut of the £25 million retail sales. Vettriano posters outsell traditional bestsellers such as Monet and Van Gogh.
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