Jack Vettriano has revealed he turned down the chance to produce a painting for the National Galleries of Scotland – because they asked for a portrait of golfer Colin Montgomerie .
He said: “I was in France when I got a call from my art dealer, who said there might have been a breakthrough. ‘The national galleries would like you to do a portrait’. I said, ‘Who?’. ‘Colin Montgomerie’.
“I said, ‘I’m afraid that the answer is no’, I don’t do men with breasts, and I don’t mean that as unkind to Colin Montgomerie (sic) . My art dealer said, ‘Think about it’ and I said, ‘I have, and the answer is no’.”
Later in the evening at the event, An Audience with Jack Vettriano, the artist was asked if he would ever paint a man as anything other than a prop for women. He replied: “I have to paint a face I like. Have you seen Colin Montgomerie’s face recently?”
However, gallery chiefs denied knowledge of any approach being made and insisted the NGS had not commissioned a portrait of the golfer.
Vettriano has had a long-running feud with the arts establishment and he has never had any of his work in a major gallery