[57488] Manchester Art Gallery : York Street, Manchester
Manchester Art Gallery.
York Street leading to Charles Street, Manchester.
By Adolphe Valette (1876-1942).
Oil on linen, 1913.
Impressionistic smog-ridden industrial scene, depicting York Street, Manchester, looking towards an arched railway bridge spanning the street, over which a steam train is passing. Two labourers shovelling a pile of coal on the road in foreground to right, a single motor car driving along the road to left. Crowded pavements and tall buildings to left and right, a grid of tiny lights shining through the smog and steam from a large office building, possibly India House, in the background beyond the railway bridge.
York Street used to run parallel to Oxford Road between Grosvenor Street in the area of the (now demolished) BBC building and the Mancunian Way. The lighted windows are the backs of the buildings on Whitworth Street and the railway viaduct is still there. Valette has made the train very small. The resulting distortion of scale adds to the feeling that city life weighs heavily upon the foreground figures.
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.
[57488] Manchester Art Gallery : York Street, Manchester
Manchester Art Gallery.
York Street leading to Charles Street, Manchester.
By Adolphe Valette (1876-1942).
Oil on linen, 1913.
Impressionistic smog-ridden industrial scene, depicting York Street, Manchester, looking towards an arched railway bridge spanning the street, over which a steam train is passing. Two labourers shovelling a pile of coal on the road in foreground to right, a single motor car driving along the road to left. Crowded pavements and tall buildings to left and right, a grid of tiny lights shining through the smog and steam from a large office building, possibly India House, in the background beyond the railway bridge.
York Street used to run parallel to Oxford Road between Grosvenor Street in the area of the (now demolished) BBC building and the Mancunian Way. The lighted windows are the backs of the buildings on Whitworth Street and the railway viaduct is still there. Valette has made the train very small. The resulting distortion of scale adds to the feeling that city life weighs heavily upon the foreground figures.
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.