[57500] Manchester Art Gallery : Old Cab at All Saints
Manchester Art Gallery.
Old Cab at All Saints, Manchester.
By Adolphe Valette (1876-1942).
Oil on linen & jute, 1911.
A hazy autumnal scene of a hansom cab parked at the curb of Grosvenor Square (All Saints) on Oxford Road in Manchester. The view is from Oxford Road, looking west where a horse and cab dominate the centre of the composition. Seen in profile to the left: the white horse is fed from a nosebag as it rests with a blanket over its hindquarters, whilst the driver puts his feet up and smokes a pipe. A small group of figures have paused near the horse's head at the left of the scene, as other pedestrians pass by between the cab and the wall beyond, which is topped with iron railings. Behind the wall are the silhouetted forms of trees and further back still stand the hazy masses of buildings. To the left, the building with the domed roof was formerly the Registry Office and the building to the extreme right is the corner of All Saints Church, which used to be sited in the centre of the square, before it was bombed during the Second World War.
Taken from Oxford Road and looking across All Saints, this was clearly conceived by Valette as a pendant to Hansom Cab at All Saints, painted the previous year. Valette taught at the School of Art which is just out of the picture on the left.
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.
[57500] Manchester Art Gallery : Old Cab at All Saints
Manchester Art Gallery.
Old Cab at All Saints, Manchester.
By Adolphe Valette (1876-1942).
Oil on linen & jute, 1911.
A hazy autumnal scene of a hansom cab parked at the curb of Grosvenor Square (All Saints) on Oxford Road in Manchester. The view is from Oxford Road, looking west where a horse and cab dominate the centre of the composition. Seen in profile to the left: the white horse is fed from a nosebag as it rests with a blanket over its hindquarters, whilst the driver puts his feet up and smokes a pipe. A small group of figures have paused near the horse's head at the left of the scene, as other pedestrians pass by between the cab and the wall beyond, which is topped with iron railings. Behind the wall are the silhouetted forms of trees and further back still stand the hazy masses of buildings. To the left, the building with the domed roof was formerly the Registry Office and the building to the extreme right is the corner of All Saints Church, which used to be sited in the centre of the square, before it was bombed during the Second World War.
Taken from Oxford Road and looking across All Saints, this was clearly conceived by Valette as a pendant to Hansom Cab at All Saints, painted the previous year. Valette taught at the School of Art which is just out of the picture on the left.
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.