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| Heartbreak Hotel (2017) Jack Vettriano |
According to the biography on his website, born in Fife (Scotland) in 1951, Jack Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining engineer. For his twenty-first birthday, a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.
The painting in question, Heartbreak Hotel shows that a little heart-wrenching despair can go a long way for the creative mind. Vetriano is not alone in this sentiment. Many artists have experienced their greatest strokes of genius after love has been lost: Frida Kahlo painted some of her masterpieces reeling from the discovery of an unfaithful husband, and Claude Monet was able to capture the death of his beloved wife on canvas.
In this painting we feel the contained pain that runs through the man's body and pierces part of his soul. We find ourselves staring at the cigarette smoke, gasping for fresh air, hoping to see an escape exit. Maybe this pain is not physical and lives only in his psyche, but emotions collide to create what I consider an extraordinary piece. Melancholy, solitude, passion, and the excruciating pain caused by heartbreak. What are the contents of that letter that is about to slip from his hand? Is he mourning the loss of a beloved one? Is he heartbroken? Was he betrayed? Or did he break somebody's heart? The pain is certainly the same, but Vetriano has conveyed the disillusionment and sorrow of a broken heart and the dogged determination to move on and embrace life. The letter may drop to the floor, but his eyes will keep on staring and his fingers holding on to the cigarette.
The painting in question, Heartbreak Hotel shows that a little heart-wrenching despair can go a long way for the creative mind. Vetriano is not alone in this sentiment. Many artists have experienced their greatest strokes of genius after love has been lost: Frida Kahlo painted some of her masterpieces reeling from the discovery of an unfaithful husband, and Claude Monet was able to capture the death of his beloved wife on canvas.
In this painting we feel the contained pain that runs through the man's body and pierces part of his soul. We find ourselves staring at the cigarette smoke, gasping for fresh air, hoping to see an escape exit. Maybe this pain is not physical and lives only in his psyche, but emotions collide to create what I consider an extraordinary piece. Melancholy, solitude, passion, and the excruciating pain caused by heartbreak. What are the contents of that letter that is about to slip from his hand? Is he mourning the loss of a beloved one? Is he heartbroken? Was he betrayed? Or did he break somebody's heart? The pain is certainly the same, but Vetriano has conveyed the disillusionment and sorrow of a broken heart and the dogged determination to move on and embrace life. The letter may drop to the floor, but his eyes will keep on staring and his fingers holding on to the cigarette.
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