Night Calls by Jack Vettriano: An Artist's Proof, 1 of 10
Some Jack Vettriano paintings arrive with a long public life behind them. Night Calls is a quieter, more private picture, and the version Dane Manor holds is rarer again: Artist's Proof 1 of 10, signed and numbered by the artist. If you know Vettriano mainly through his beach dancers and seaside promenades, this is a chance to own something from the more intimate, after-dark side of his work, in one of the scarcest forms the edition takes.
A painting from Vettriano's more intimate side
Vettriano, born in Fife and entirely self-taught, built his reputation on scenes that feel like stills from a film you half remember: figures in evening dress, lamplit rooms, moments caught just before or just after something happens. Night Calls belongs to the more charged end of that world. Galleries handling the edition describe it as one of his more erotic works, and like many of his best paintings it leaves the story deliberately unfinished, so the viewer supplies the rest.
The original painting was shown in Days of Wine and Roses, Vettriano's 2010 exhibition at Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, close to where he grew up. The limited edition followed in 2022, released alongside several other new Vettriano editions that year, including Bluebird at Bonneville, which is also in the Dane Manor collection.
What an artist's proof is, and why it matters
Night Calls was published as a signed edition of 100, with a further 10 Artist's Proofs. The proofs are numbered separately from the main run and are, by tradition, the impressions set aside for the artist when an edition is made. With only ten of them against a hundred numbered prints, they are the copies many collectors look for first.
The piece Dane Manor holds is marked 1/10. It is the same image, on the same paper, at the same size as the main edition; the difference lies in its place within the edition and in how few proofs exist. If you would rather own a print from the main numbered run, we hold one of those too: Night Calls, signed limited edition.
This edition in detail
Night Calls is printed on 300gsm museum etching paper, a heavy, softly textured stock with a gentle, matt finish. It is signed and numbered by the artist, from an edition of 100 plus 10 Artist's Proofs. The image measures 39 x 31.5 cm, with a mount size of 62 x 53.5 cm and a frame size of 73 x 64.5 cm.
Like every piece we sell, it comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and fully insured UK and international delivery, so it arrives exactly as it left us.
How it sits in a mixed collection
Dane Manor is a multi-artist gallery, so we tend to think about how a piece behaves next to other work, not only on its own. At 73 x 64.5 cm framed, Night Calls is an intimate scale: a picture for a study, a bedroom or a corridor where people pass close by, rather than the main wall of a large room. Its subject suits a more private space, and it rewards being seen up close.
It also makes a natural companion to Bluebird at Bonneville from the same 2022 release, or to other figurative and urban work in a collection. Vettriano's narrative pictures tend to hold their own beside bolder contemporary pieces, because they ask for a different kind of attention: slower, more curious, a little voyeuristic. As with any work on paper, hang it away from direct sunlight and give it some space around the frame.
Explore more of his work on our Jack Vettriano artist page.
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