Artist sets an auction singing

A sophisticated couple -- he in evening clothes, she in a slim red gown -- dance on a wet and wind-swept beach as a maid and a butler hold out black umbrellas in a futile effort to protect the clinging dancers from the weather.

Although no face is fully visible, we know the black-clad manservant must be singing because this painting -- just sold for a Scottish auction record of $1.3 million -- is called “The Singing Butler.”

It is the most famous painting by immensely popular contemporary Scottish artist Jack Vettriano and can be seen, along with many other of his works, on millions of greeting cards, posters and mugs worldwide. About 12 million, in fact.

Critics, by and large, don’t like the work of Vettriano, a self-taught artist who left school at 16. But he may be harder to ignore after Monday evening’s Sotheby’s auction in Scotland, where 14 of his works, including “The Singing Butler,” sold for almost $3.5 million.