[23098] Manchester School of Art - Adolphe Valette
Cavendish Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.
Manchester Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Design, Grosvenor Building, 1880-81.
Former Manchester School of Art.
Adolphe Valette (1876-1942) French painter and teacher in the School of Art 1907-1920..
This building was the original Manchester School of Art. The Manchester School of Design was set up in 1838, only the second design school in Britain, and became the Manchester School of Art soon after. It was here in the early years of the 20th century that LS Lowry studied. His teacher was Adolphe Valette.
Adolphe Valette was born in 1876 in the industrial town of St Etienne, and came to England in 1904. He settled in Manchester and studied at the Manchester School of Art and taught there from 1906 to 1920. Amongst his students was LS Lowry.
When Valette was an art student in France, the Impressionist movement was at its height. By the end of the 19th century art galleries and collectors all over Europe were buying paintings by Monet, Renoir and others. When Valette arrived in Manchester he brought first hand knowledge of Impressionist painting with him which he was able to share with his students, including LS Lowry. ‘Forain, Monet, Degas and the French Impressionists were his gods’, as one of his students put it.
It was between 1908 and 1913 that he completed his major Impressionist Manchester cityscapes. In 1908 he produced his first Manchester painting depicting Manchester Ship Canal. He fully understood the Impressionist practice of painting en plein air, capturing an immediate visual impression of a scene and rendering the exact effect of light.
Soon after his arrival in Manchester, Valette enrolled as a student in the evening classes at the Municipal School
of Art at All Saints, now part of Manchester Metropolitan University. His talent was quickly recognised and he was encouraged to apply for the position of Master of Painting and Drawing. He accepted this post ‘on the condition that he should teach the pupils by actually painting with them.
In 1928 Valette left Manchester, due to ill health and following the death of his mother. He moved permanently to Blace in the Beaujolais region of France, settling in a cottage which he inherited from his mother and where he had spent many holidays.
[23098] Manchester School of Art - Adolphe Valette
Cavendish Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester.
Manchester Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Design, Grosvenor Building, 1880-81.
Former Manchester School of Art.
Adolphe Valette (1876-1942) French painter and teacher in the School of Art 1907-1920..
This building was the original Manchester School of Art. The Manchester School of Design was set up in 1838, only the second design school in Britain, and became the Manchester School of Art soon after. It was here in the early years of the 20th century that LS Lowry studied. His teacher was Adolphe Valette.
Adolphe Valette was born in 1876 in the industrial town of St Etienne, and came to England in 1904. He settled in Manchester and studied at the Manchester School of Art and taught there from 1906 to 1920. Amongst his students was LS Lowry.
When Valette was an art student in France, the Impressionist movement was at its height. By the end of the 19th century art galleries and collectors all over Europe were buying paintings by Monet, Renoir and others. When Valette arrived in Manchester he brought first hand knowledge of Impressionist painting with him which he was able to share with his students, including LS Lowry. ‘Forain, Monet, Degas and the French Impressionists were his gods’, as one of his students put it.
It was between 1908 and 1913 that he completed his major Impressionist Manchester cityscapes. In 1908 he produced his first Manchester painting depicting Manchester Ship Canal. He fully understood the Impressionist practice of painting en plein air, capturing an immediate visual impression of a scene and rendering the exact effect of light.
Soon after his arrival in Manchester, Valette enrolled as a student in the evening classes at the Municipal School
of Art at All Saints, now part of Manchester Metropolitan University. His talent was quickly recognised and he was encouraged to apply for the position of Master of Painting and Drawing. He accepted this post ‘on the condition that he should teach the pupils by actually painting with them.
In 1928 Valette left Manchester, due to ill health and following the death of his mother. He moved permanently to Blace in the Beaujolais region of France, settling in a cottage which he inherited from his mother and where he had spent many holidays.