The Singing Butler is Britain's best selling image and has found its way into the national consciousness. Vettriano's oil painting shows a glamorous couple dancing on a beach, both flanked by servants shielding them with umbrellas. The work, completed early in the artist's career, was initially started after it was remarked that Vettriano had a talent for painting beaches. Buoyed by this compliment, and the realisation that people in love go to the beach, the artist imaged a romantic scene that could then be reconstructed with models on the beach near his home in Western Scotland. With the work's popularity showing no signs of waning, The Singing Butler continues to confirm Vettriano's title of the people's painter.
