Alex Reuben took a gamble when he quit selling suits in Moss Bros to open an art gallery in Manchester's Royal Exchange Arcade, aged 25 and "looking like I was 17". He has just taken an even bigger punt.
His Contemporary Six Gallery relocated and now occupies premises on Princess Street in the shadow of the town hall and Albert Square. It is the same Square which French artist Adolphe Valette famously painted. As well as being L S Lowry's tutor Valette also captured Manchester's industrial glory with paintings of bridges spanning the Irwell, and the dark city factories dotted with tiny lights. Several now hang in one room at Manchester City Art Gallery.
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Alex has continued that Manchester connection to Valette by acquiring 59 of his works for an exhibition later this month. Their provenance is impeccable. They were from from Valette's biographer, south Manchester based, Cecilia Lyon, who herself acquired them when vesting the artist's family and home in France while writing the book.
"I have 59 original works, some of which were on show at the Lowry during the last Valette show there in 2011, but many have never been seen. The owner approached me, which was a surprise. It is the biggest purchase of art I have ever made. But I thought it was an incredible opportunity.
"Occasionally you get offered a couple of works by an established artist but to have an entire portfolio by such a sought-after artist is incredible, and a privilege.
"Most were painted between 1910 and 1920 when, every summer, Valette, who was working in Manchester, would go back to France on his holidays. That is where they were created, in the small village, of Blaceret and they depict animals mostly."
As well as farm animals the works include drawings of his beloved dog, Cora who was rescued from the "Manchester Home for Lost Dogs".
All the works are on paper. "There are some quick sketches, some tenative sketches, and some very considered, almost like etchings, and water colours. One of the water colours has Lowry-esque figures in them. He always had a pen and paper in his hand and some of these will have been used to make bigger paintings. Because of rationing at the time due to the First World War, they are graph paper, wallpaper, tracing paper, butcher's paper, everything he could get hold of."
Valette was Lowry's teacher at Manchester Municipal School of Art. Born in St Etienne, France in 1876, Valette arrived in Manchester in 1905. By day he worked for a printing firm, by night he was studying art. By 1907 he was invited to teach at the city's art school. His famous "Manchester-scapes," through his impressionist eyes and palette, recorded the mood of the city's streets, canals, rivers, docks, fog, pollution, and warehouses, particularly from 1908 to 1916.
They include magnificent oil paintings of Albert Square, Oxford Road, Windsor and Bailey Bridges over the river Irwell, and the twinkling lights of the office building, India House.
In 1928 Valette left Manchester for France. Manchester Art Gallery purchased nine of his large canvases. His legacy to the city, they are social documents of a bygone age. In the early 1970s the famous Tib Lane gallery started showing his work and they championed him for the next 30 years.
Lowry later acknowledged the debt he owed to this talented Frenchman. He said: "I cannot over-estimate the effect on me at the time of the coming into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of French Impressionists, aware of everything that was going on in Paris. He had a freshness and a breadth of experience that exhilarated students, I had not seen drawings like this before."
While Lowry's paintings sell in the millions of pounds Valette's are in the low thousands - the exception being his Manchester paintings, which rarely come on the market and can sell for £25,000 plus.
But the Valettes in Alex's exhibition will range from about £200 to £1,600.
"There's a chance to have an original work by Valette, who is such an important figure in the north west, most of all for teaching Lowry.
It is an opportunity to have a piece of northern history for a few hundred pounds. An original oil painting by Valette, especially the city centre, you are talking £20,000 or £30,000.
"The works are a very intimate glimpse into his sketches created at a time when he took advantage of the school holidays.
"They are in stark contrast to the smog-filled Mancunian streets that are synonymous with Valette. Instead they depict blissful, pastoral farm life. They show the artist's clear devotion to animals and the quiet life."
Alex, 37, from Whitefield, added: "I think I am the only gallerist in the north west with a degree in fine art. I attended Leeds Metropolitan University, which is a fantastic art school. But it became apparent very good, quite quickly. I was always interested in business and art and had the idea of owning a gallery.
"I left university and couldn't get a job in the art world so I ended up at Moss Bros selling suits, starting at the shop in St Ann's Square. I worked my way up to be assistant manager at the Bolton store. But over that time I was researching opening a gallery every day. I managed to get a small loan and a favourable rent in the Royal Exchange. "
Alex rode some tough times but kept going and was in the arcade for six years, before he outgrew the space and switched to Princess Street in 2016. "We were next to the town hall, people passing going to work, tourists in Manchester, I thought we had made it. Then I got a letter in the post saying the town hall was closing for six years., then we hit problem after problem."
During the COVID pandemic Alex got a grant from the government and did online exhibitions which brought in sales. "I had to deliver works to people's houses - stood at the door - just do what I had to do. We had a good year last year after the gallery had re-opened." Attracting interesting shows helps - including one by Jim Moir, alias Vic Reeves.
Entitled "Northern Connections and Pierre Adolphe Valette - Works on Paper" the exhibition will showcase work by Gallery and guest artists depicting various Northern locations. Artists include Jen Orpin, Michael Ashcroft, Liam Spencer, Helen Clapcott, Rob Pointon and over 20 others.
The Valette works will occupy the downstairs Gallery space. They have never been seen before in a commercial gallery setting. The exhibition will open the weekend of October 29th/30th.
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