Jack Vettriano, the self-taught Scottish painter behind Britain's best-selling image of 2012, *The Singing Butler* (1992), has announced that he may never paint again after dislocating his shoulder. Vettriano told the Independent that he is undergoing physiotherapy but faces a long recovery and cannot paint in the foreseeable future. The news comes as a blow to his devoted fan base, who had been hoping for new work following his 2013–14 retrospective at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, which drew 123,000 visitors.
Vettriano's career has been marked by a stark divide between popular acclaim and critical scorn. His 2004 auction sale of *The Singing Butler* for £744,000 ($1.3 million) was a remarkable achievement for an artist who left school at 16 and only became a professional painter at 40. The injury raises questions about the future output of one of Britain's most commercially successful yet divisive living artists, underscoring the fragility of artistic production and the personal toll of physical setbacks on creative careers.