The hidden side of artist Adolphe Valette, miles from his ‘Manchester-scapes’

He is known for teaching L S Lowry and his huge oil paintings of industrial Manchester which hang in the City Art Gallery. They include, through his impressionist eyes, the city’s streets, canals, rivers, docks, fog, and the twinkling lights of warehouses and offices like India House, from 1908 to 1916. Perhaps his most well known ‘Manchester-scape’ is ‘Albert Square’, showing a capped man pushing a wooden cart in the foreground, the memorial statues of Oliver Heywood and William Gladstone, and part of the town hall. But, an exhibition in the city of 70 of his works will show another…