Bonhams Scottish Sale featuring an early, rare Vettriano painting to raise funds for UNHCR.

A rare Jack Vettriano painting is set to go on sale at a Scottish auction in an effort to raise funds for The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

Still Life, an early work from the Fife artist, will go on sale at Bonhams Scottish Art Sale, with proceeds set to support UNHCR’s relief work for people displaced by the conflict in Ukraine.

In what is believed by the artist “to be the only still life he ever painted”, the work is estimated to fetch between £10,000 to £15,000.

Vettriano left school at 15 to become a mining engineer but took up painting after a girlfriend gave him a box of watercolours for his 21st birthday and came to Kirkcaldy Galleries to learn from the work of other artists.

He studied the works of Scottish painters such as Samuel Peploe and William McTaggart so intently that he feared arousing the suspicions of gallery staff.

The sale will take place at Bonhams, in Edinburgh, on Wednesday October 19.

Also featured in the sale is a collection of 12 works by Scottish Colourist George Leslie Hunter, which have been assembled over many years by the lates artist’s cousin.