£62,500
Contemporary & Post-War Art | Prints & Multiples | 635
Auction: Contemporary & Post-War Art | Prints & Multiples
Signed lower right, oil on canvas
Hailing from the same period as ‘The Singing Butler’, this work from his series ‘Ritual of Courtship’, captures the quintessence of what so appeals to the public about his painting. Bathed in the golden glow of summers past, his figures wear the distinctive style of the 1940s, from the capacious double-breasted blazer of the central figure to the cat-eye flicks of the lady’s sunglasses.
The scene reads like a vignette from an old photograph or a piece of classic cinema, and recalls the work of American realist, Edward Hopper. The inscription ‘Fish Teas’ on a nearby wooden building nods to a sense of realism, charmingly grounding the painting in a Scottish setting and tapping into our British nostalgia for seaside resorts from eras gone by. Romance and attraction are near constant undercurrents of Vettriano’s work and this piece is no different; the two gentlemen clearly taking an interest in the stylish woman right of centre in the frame.