No-one knows for sure why Pierre Adolphe Valette left his native France for England. The best guess is that he was following in the footsteps of his “god”, Claude Monet, who travelled to London at the onset of the Franco-Prussian War and subsequently made many return visits.
Valette however did not stay in London, but moved on to Manchester where he first studied and then taught at the Municipal School of Art. Somehow, in between teaching, he managed to produce an extraordinary series of paintings of the Edwardian city, capturing it at the moment when it hovered smokily between the past and the present. Many of the smog-laden cityscapes subsequently became the property of Manchester Art Gallery, and it is they who originally produced this delightful and unusual little book, now republished by Scala. The format … small pages on high quality paper that fold out into larger sheets … allows Valette’s paintings and drawings to be reproduced on the scale that they deserve.
The influence of Monet on Valette’s work is unmistakable. Like Monet, he returned to the same scene several times, in
different lights - and was also fascinated by bridges. He too was a master of light and dark - viewing with an artist’s eyes the industrial wasteland that was Manchester at the beginning of the 20th Century and almost magically bestowing upon it an unworldly beauty.
Of Valette’s many pupils, few are remembered today and it’s ironic, as author Sandra Martin says, that it should be the one his fellow pupils regarded as a joke who so far surpassed both them and his art master that he now has a modern gallery dedicated to him in Salford.
L S Lowry said: “I cannot underestimate the effect on me at that time of the coming into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of the French Impressionists, aware of everything that was going on in Paris … I owe so much to him”.
When you stand in Manchester Art Gallery and admire Valette’s canvasses you can detect both the heart and eye of Monet - who so profoundly influenced him - and also the vision of Lowry, whom he influenced in turn.
This delightful book explains why. Profusely illustrated, with a spare but lucid biographical text, it should be on the bookshelf of every art lover, industrial archaeologist and social historian. Adolphe Valette was unjustly overlooked for many years and it is only comparatively recently that the art world has begun to re-evaluate both him and his body of work. It was long past time that this little book was republished.
Scala Publishers Ltd. 4-fold pages. ISBN: 13-978-1-857-488-1. November 2007.
How fascinating. I have never heard of him- sounds quite a unique figure. From those pictures you have illustrated it is hard to see but it looks a lot more traditionally solid than Monet - is that so? And more traditional for the time altogether than the likes of Lowry. Are they oils? The lower one almost looks like watercolour from here but I imagine that’s the reproduction on the screen making it look a bit faint.
By the way, is there’s a word missing after Franco-Prussian?
You mean like “War”? :o} Thanks for pointing it out! Duly amended.
Yes … although his style varies quite a lot and some of his paintings are more - diaphanous, let’s say - there is, in general more solidity to Valette’s work in Manchester, but then he was painting a very dark and solid city. The cotton mills rose like great cliffs, part obscured by the filthy air … it would have been a hideous place in the early 20th century.
Both of the paintings illustrated are oil on linen. The cover is “York Street Leading to Charles Street” (1913) and the second is my personal favourite - “India House” (1912).
These paintings are beautiful,”unworldly” so, as you say, I want to see more of his work. I know an industrial city of the era had to have been dark and grimy, to take that an turn it into paintings such as these, takes no small skill. Thank you for introducing hsi work to us by way of this lovely tribute book.
Never heard of him before either. Beautiful paintings. Am off to Google him now. Fascinating and unusual review. Many thanks.
I went to the Manchester art gallery this weekend and saw for the first time some of Adolphe Valette’s work. I was truly amazed by the beauty and atmospheric style of his work.
If you have not seen any, go to a gallery as soon as you can, take a seat and just look at the pictures taking in all the emotions they evoke.
They are wonderful.
C
Aren’t they just STUNNING, Charlie?