Jack Vettriano: The Sliver of Nostalgia

Jack Vettriano is a contemporary painter whose popularity continues to grow. As it should be expected to, since his paintings are about, well, according to him, “sad, unhappy people who are driven by lust,” which tends to be a popular subject among boringly happy people. A self-taught Scottish artist, Vettriano’s paintings capture a world that never was and never shall be, always at its best moments. Consider Along Came a Spider, which captures a noir-ish scene at the moment of highest excitement in a relationship: just before the couple meets. The woman lounges on the couch in a black cocktail dress and long black gloves. She is slender, her legs long and thin, her collarbone clearly visible in light and shadow, the joint of her right shoulder clearly visible. Whereas Klimt’s figures project emotion, Vettriano’s figures absorb it, like black holes, repressing feeling to be replaced with incipient passion.

Vettriano’s figures are just snapshots in a cycle of unhappiness, but they are shown at their best moments, the moments that make it all seem worthwhile. He shows us figures dressed up (or just undressed) at their best, or in moments of romantic beauty, as in Beautiful Dreamer, which should remind us that beauty is not an all-the-time thing. It is like a sacred river meandering through field and forest, sometimes glittering in sunlight, sometimes hidden. “Late nights and bad mornings,” as Vettriano describes them, are the consequences of this life, but he rarely shows them. It is important, though, for us to remember that they lurk unseen.

The consequences of this kind of life are darkened eyes and furrowed brows; wrinkles, sunken cheeks, tight lips. Women in this category of beauty often need touch-ups between these moments, especially with injectable treatments. BOTOX® cosmetic can counter the creased brow from morning-after anger. Autologous fat injections can fill cheeks and the hollows around the eyes. Restylane can be used in lip augmentation to keep the lips from growing too narrow and masculine.