Adolphe Valetee: A Pioneer of Impressionism in Manchester
The gallery had put on a very extensive display of
Valette's paintings and drawings together with those of his student L.S.
Lowry. Valette worked in France as both a teacher and a commercial artist for a number of years before moving to Manchester where he met
Lowry. He considered
Lowry to be a talented artist and begged
Lowry's father to allow him to become a professional. However, this request was denied.
Valette married one of his students, Gabriella, who unfortunately died at a fairly early age. In the exhibition there is a beautiful portrait of his son who also sadly died at the early age of 14.
Brian Dunk, the curator of the exhibition, has displayed the same subject painted by both the master and student side by side and it is intriguing to see the
development of talents as time went by. There are examples of
Valette's undefined impressions of landscape and industrial scenes and we see that
Lowry's impressions interpreted figures of people as stick people. The portraits and drawings show industrial, rural scenes together with self portraits, family portraits, still life, nude figures, and every interpretation that an artist could imagine.
The film archives in Manchester supplied us with a 3 minute film showing a busy Manchester junction. There were horse-drawn carriages, automobiles, and trams. Also many very busy pedestrians scurrying about their business in the 1930s. Also very interesting it showed very large burly policemen blowing their whistles, directing traffic, and shooing traffic away from the tram lines.
Valette married for the second time and his wife was a teacher at London University and he eventually returned to France where he enjoyed a comfortable and
accommodating relationship with his housekeeper for a number of years.
We had the
opportunity to spend an extra half an hour looking back over the portraits that we most enjoyed and then went to the restaurant bar for drinks and
biscuits, the cost of which has caused quite a large dent in Mary's group budget.
Ann
Hornsby gave us some wonderful descriptions of the artwork as we enjoyed the visit and we would like to thank her for her dedication.
Mary as usual gathered together her volunteer drivers who took us too and from the gallery and we would like to thank them all for their help in guiding us around the exhibition.
A most enjoyable visit
