Personal Collection of Paintings

Shortly after the death of Charles Allen Du Val on 14 June 1872, his fine personal collection of paintings was prepared for sale. Notice of its imminent auction appeared as early as 28 July 1872.

The collection consisted of 121 pictures by himself and other artists, of which about a quarter were water colours. The whole collection was put on view in Manchester at the Exchange Street gallery of his old friend Thomas Agnew.

“As Mr. Duval’s own productions figure numerously in the list, his many friends are afforded an opportunity of obtaining characteristic mementoes of his qualities. Amongst the most important works in the collection are Mr. Duval’s early picture “The Fetch”, “Nelly Teaching Kit to Read”, a study from the “Old Curiosity Shop,” “Liverpool by Moonlight”, a number of Fancy Heads in Pastilles, several seapieces after Sam Bough, several Welsh landscapes, “Stepping-stones on the Llgwy,” some fine views on the Rhine, and various studies of moonlight effects. His water-colour drawings include some very pleasing seapieces and views of Welsh scenery. Among other pictures by other artists which M. Duval has collected are two “Views of the Coast of Normandy”, by Lancaster; “A View on the Thames,” by Leslie; “The Bass Rock,” by Barlow, a very pretty picture; “Rotterdam” by Crawford; a singularly wierd [sic] picture, which has recently excited much controversy in art circles in Manchester, painted by Atkinson Grimshaw, entitled “Found;” an “Ophelia,” by Augustus L. Egg, R.A.; a portrait by Giorgione; one of G. Morland’s innumerable Roadside Inns, and pictures by Bond, Porteous, Dibdin, and others. The water-colour collection includes eight or nine drawings by Sam Bough, who was an old friend of the collector, and fondly admired by him; two landscapes by Niemann; “A View on the Thames,” by Thomas Danby; Mr. F. Shields’s “Go cart,” and drawings by Dalziel, Berchere, R.S. Bond, Wild, James Whaite, G. Morland, Jutsum, Reynolds, and H.J. Holding. (1)”.

(1) The Manchester Times dated 20 July 1872.