Manchester and art are undoubtedly linked, with the legacy of L.S. Lowry living on, and the likes of street art becoming synonymous with our city. One artist that Manchester adopted for some time during his life was Pierre Adolphe Valette, a French-born master of impressionist and floral painting and design for textiles, and now the largest public exhibition of his work is opening in Manchester.
Contemporary Six gallery invites you to Pierre Adolphe Valette − Art Botanique, an exhibition of works by the French impressionist, from April 27 − May 18, 2024. This exhibition comprises a collection of floral designs by Valette for textiles. Created in the first half of the 20th century, these delicate blooms show the artist’s skill as a draughtsman. A number of works also feature text by the artist; coding systems and colour palette studies − showing the hidden processes behind design manufacturing.
Valette’s legacy is mainly seen today in his large seminal impressionist paintings of Manchester created in the early 1900s, with many exhibited at the Manchester Art Gallery. These included moody cityscapes and impressions of iconic Manchester buildings, including Manchester Cathedral, which are eerily similar to those of his contemporary, L.S. Lowry.
However, in order to make a living, Valette, like other artists, was compelled to earn money through other means: he was an art teacher at the Manchester School of Art (where he taught L.S. Lowry for more than a decade), a portrait painter for the well-to-do Mancunian society and he also supplemented his income with numerous commercial activities: private decorations for individual homes; church decorations; commercial poster designs and also textile designs.
In his initial training in France, as an art student at the École des Beaux-Arts de St-Étienne, Valette attended the ‘Classe de la Fleur‘ (class for the drawing of flowers). At the end of the 19th century, in the region of Saint-Étienne and Lyon, young aspiring artists learned to draw flowers with the aim of designing for fabrics or wallpapers.
There was a need for skilled draughtsmen who could draw any motif requested by the ‘fabriques’ (textile factories) to suit the needs of the customers. These draughtsmen were the offshoot of professional painting and a skill much sought-after in Valette’s time when computer aided design obviously did not exist. The activity of textile design was quite important for Valette, and we can assume that he started while he was still living in Manchester.
Cecilia Lyon, a leading expert on Valette, said: “It is a great moment that these drawings, these ‘cretonnes’, can be admired by members of the general public revealing a much-forgotten aspect of Valette’s talent, and that these splendid floral designs can give a touch of French brightness and lustre to the homes of collectors in Manchester and its region, where they were initially conceived.”
The Pierre Adolphe Valette − Art Botanique exhibition will run at Contemporary Six gallery in Manchester from April 27 − May 18, 2024.
📍 Contemporary Six, 37 Princess St, Manchester M2 4FN.