Gilbert Valentin (1928 Nancy - 2001 Vallauris)

So you did well at school and got yourself an amazingly well-paid job that’s been reasonably satisfying and your comfortably off but...you can’t afford a Picasso.

It’s rare I give advice on buying art but I will in this instance;

One of the areas of growing interest in art over the last ten years has been in lesser-known mid 20th century continental painters, works by artists such as Claude Venard and Jacques Delvaux have become sought after, filling a niche in the market for those wanting the look and quality of the mid-century greats without the expense.

So in that vein, I’d like to introduce you to Gilbert Valentin. Valentin was born to be an artisan, his father a great art metal worker and member of the Nancy School imparted to his son his knowledge of ironwork.

Though what really inspired Gilbert was ceramics, he trained at Vierzon and worked at Luneville before heading South to live and work in the beautiful light of Vallauris, the spiritual home of art pottery, in the 1950s.

Here in Emerald Hills of Provence and bathing in the azure light reflected from the Mediterranean Valentin found inspiration and deep friendship with Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Georges Braque.

At Lots Road this week we can offer a watercolour by Gilbert Valentin, which likely dates to the 1960s or ’70s and is a typically enigmatic work entitled “Tete”, and which shows the influences of Picasso and Cocteau which would have been received by Valentin first hand.

- Nick Carter