ARCHIVE OF MAN WHO TAUGHT LOWRY TO PAINT AT BONHAMS BRITISH & EUROPEAN ART SALE IN KNIGHTSBRIDGE

Bonhams is to sell the archive of the French Impressionist painter Adolphe Valette who taught L. S. Lowry to paint when he attended Manchester Municipal School of Art as an evening student from 1910-1917. When Lowry was unsure what subjects to tackle, Valette suggested that he painted “what he saw around him”. The archive will be offered at the British and European Art Sale in Knightsbridge on Tuesday 22 November. It is estimated at £300-500. 12 of Valette’s paintings are also offered in the sale.

Valette (1876-1942) was born in Saint-Étienne and received his art training in Bordeaux. In 1904 he moved to the UK and, after a time studying in London, moved to the northwest where we worked as a designer for a printing company. He studied at Manchester Municipal School of Art in the evenings and in 1907 was invited to join the staff as a teacher. Lowry always spoke warmly of Valette, crediting his teacher with introducing him to new techniques and ideas. He once wrote: ‘I cannot over-estimate the effect on me of the coming into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of French impressionists, aware of everything that was going on in Paris.’

Valette was a considerable artist in his own right and his paintings of urban Manchester hang in the city’s art gallery. Around 1919, Valette stepped down from his position as head of Manchester School of Art, probably due to poor health. He returned to France and continued painting in Blacé in the Rhône department. He kept in close contact with his many friends and fellow painters in Manchester and returned regularly during the 1920s.

The archive illuminates Valette’s network of contacts with north-west England following his return to live in France, and also contains some details of the paintings he exhibited in Manchester.

Veronique Scorer, Head of the Picture Department at Bonhams Knightsbridge, said: ‘Adolphe Valette was an important artist, with a real gift for teaching. Lowry has recorded his debt to Valette but countless other aspiring artists benefited from his wisdom and the window he provided onto developments in the wider art world. As the archive shows he also had a great gift for friendship and lively correspondence.’