oil on canvas, signed
framed

Note: Valette was a French Impressionist painter. His most acclaimed paintings are urban landscapes of Manchester, now in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery. Today, he is chiefly remembered as L.S. Lowry's tutor. Little is known of his family and early life, except that his parents were poor and that he studied at the local art school in St Etienne. His second wife Andree, believed that he started working at sixteen, so it was about 1862 that he went to Lyon to work as an engraver and painter whilst continuing his studies. He travelled a great deal and it was in Bordeaux where he was enrolled in evening classes that he won the crucial scholarship in 1903, which was to bring him to England. He enrolled in the painting course at the Birkbeck Institute in London. He left for Manchester after only a few months, arriving around Spring 1904. He worked for some time on private commissions and designing calendars and tickets. In the evenings Valette attended classes at the Municipal School of Art and by 1906 he was on the staff and was soon Art Master. Between 1906-20 Valette’s presence seems to have transformed the school of Art. One of his pupils was L.S. Lowry, who went on to achieve world-wide fame. Lowry paid tribute to Valette on a number of occasions.