£50K BOILER DOOR? WELL IT IS A VETTRIANO
IT is perhaps one of the most unusual canvases for any intimate portrait.
But a boiler cupboard door on which Scots artist Jack Vettriano depicted his former lover has fetched £50,000.
Vettriano, 68, painted Suddenly Last Summer directly on to the cupboard door in his former one-bedroom flat and studio in Knightsbridge, London, in 1999.
The artist, who was raised in Methil, Fife, produced the work to conceal the unsightly cupboard while simultaneously making ‘a feature of it’, and included it in the sale of the first floor property when he moved back to Scotland in 2013.
The buyer sold the flat again two years later, but kept the boiler cupboard door, including the 37x24in oil painting, which he put up for sale for the first time yesterday – complete with the rest of the 77x30in door panel and its two metal hinges.
The piece, which Vettriano also put a frame round, was among the highlights of Christie’s sale of Modern British Art, where it had a pre-sale estimate of £40,000-60,000.
The work was snapped up by an anonymous online bidder for £50,000.
The distinctive artwork, signed ‘Vettriano’ in the bottom corner, shows a hooded woman in front of a yellow car, with a gloved hand resting on the front window frame.
Vettriano, who was ‘fully supportive’, said ahead of the sale: ‘I bought a flat in Pont Street in Knightsbridge and as part of the refurbishment I altered the layout of the property which required rehousing the boiler behind a door. To properly conceal the door I decided I would make a feature of it with a painting and when I left Pont Street the painting was included in the sale.’
Albany Bell of Christie’s said: ‘It has everything you’d want from a Vettriano – it’s very stylish, a very cool image and very well painted with a sense of intrigue – and it has this wonderful added story. It will be up to the new buyer whether they decide to cut it down or not, but for us it adds to the story.’