Dancing butler

Vettriano's breakthrough year was 1988, when he felt ready to display his paintings in public and submitted two canvases for the Royal Scottish Academy annual show. Both paintings sold on the first day and Vettriano was approached by several galleries who wanted to sell his other work. The success and attention contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage and he moved to Edinburgh, changing his name to Vettriano, adding an "a" to his mother's maiden name.

Further successful exhibitions followed in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and New York. His paintings are reminiscent of the film noir genre, often with romantic or nude themes.His original paintings now regularly fetch six figure prices, but he is thought to make more money from the sale of reproductions.

According to The Guardian, he earns 500,000 a year in print royalties. Each year a new set of limited edition prints are published, and his most popular work, The Singing Butler, sells more posters and postcards than any other artist in the UK. On 21 April 2004 the original canvas of The Singing Butler sold at auction for 744,500in stark contrast to 1992 when Vettriano painted the picture and submitted it for inclusion in the Royal Academy summer show, only to be rejected.

In November 1999, Vettriano’s work was shown for the first time in New York, when twenty paintings were displayed at The International 20th Century Arts Fair at The Armory.In January 2008 Vettriano donated a painting,Study for Bluebird at Bonneville, to a charity auction at the London Art Fair to raise funds for the Terrence Higgins Trust.

The painting, which was one of the studies for the iconic painting Bluebird at Bonneville, was sold for 32,000 and was the highest achieving lot of the night.In 2004 Vettriano set up a scholarship for St Andrew's University to fund a student who would not be able to attend university otherwise. The scholarship is awarded every four years, the first recipient of which began their studies in September 2004.

The endowment follows his financial contribution towards refurbishing the Students Association's Old Union Coffee Bar in 2002 and his involvement in student fashion shows. He was made a Doctor of Letters by the university. In September 2001, Vettriano donated a painting, Beautiful Dreamer to a charity auction, which was held at Sotheby’s in aid of Help the Hospices.

In 2008, a rare drawing he made of that subject sold for 22,000 at a charity auction in aid of the Oriel Plas Glyn-y-Weddw Gallery in North Wales in July, helping to keep the gallery going.