From November 20, 2025 to January 25, 2026, the Museo della Permanente in Milan hosts a retrospective dedicated to Jack Vettriano (1951-2025), a recently deceased Scottish artist, much loved and appreciated by the Italian and international public for his cinematic and melancholic works.

The exhibition, curated by Francesca Bogliolo, organized by Chiara Campagnoli, Deborah Petroni, and Rubens Fogacci of Pallavicini s.r.l., in collaboration with Jack Vettriano Publishing and coordinated by Beside Arts, presents over 80 works, including nine oil paintings on canvas, a series of unique edition works on museum paper, a cycle of photographs taken in the artist's studio by Francesco Guidicini, the official portraitist of the Sunday Times, whose creations are present at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and a video in which Vettriano talks about himself and his stylistic evolution.

The story of Jack Vettriano, born Jack Hoggan, seems to come out of the pages of a Victorian novel. Born in the county of Fife, on the Scottish coast of the North Sea, into a family connected to coal mining, Hoggan started working early, at the age of ten, to contribute to the family finances, and at 16 he left school to work as a mining technical apprentice. Only at the age of twenty-one did he start painting as a self-taught artist, after receiving a set of brushes and watercolors as a birthday gift. Almost fifteen years later, in 1988, he managed to exhibit in a professional artistic environment, at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; during this debut exhibition, on the first day of display, both of his paintings were sold.

Moving to Edinburgh, he took on the stage name Vettriano, borrowed from his mother's surname, the daughter of an Italian immigrant from the province of Frosinone. His career, opposed by official art critics, who probably did not forgive him for his self-taught background and accused him of reproducing a light aesthetic, nevertheless had great success among painting enthusiasts who recognized his ability to create evocative atmospheres capable of eliciting intense emotions and his skill in capturing moments of high sensuality. As a testament to the public's appreciation, one of his most famous works, "The Singing Butler," in 2004, was sold by Sotheby's for almost £750,000. The scene depicts a dancing couple moving gracefully on the shore on a gloomy and windy day, protected by umbrellas held open by a maid and a butler who, in Vettriano's imagination, sings the melody of Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon." His paintings evoke noir atmospheres, often with romantic themes and nudes in the foreground; his peculiar style recalls sensual situations and theatrical dimensions. The theme of love is often present in his works; a romantic and yet restless love, where women of captivating beauty and elegant men intertwine their relationships in luxurious hotel rooms, exclusive clubs, or ballrooms. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II honored him with the OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to the visual arts.