This painting of Walton le Dale is by Albert Woods (1871–1944). He painted landscapes and coastal views.
Albert Woods was born and lived in Preston. He studied at St. Ives, Cornwall and he also illustrated a Colour Book of Lancashire by F. A. Bruton. He was an Associate member of the Royal Cambrian Academy.
“Clair de lune” translates to “moonlight” in English. The phrase is French for “clear of moon” and is often used to refer to the light of the moon or a scene illuminated by moonlight.
Walton Village, Clair de Lune
This is about an in image of a painting that I came across a while ago. I have wanted to find a better version since then, but there didn’t appear to be one in the public domain. It seems to have been the subject of a private sale, but the art tracing websites that feature it have very small images. From that point of view, I was thinking that I would never see it any bigger. The original is said to be 40 inches by 30 inches, which is reasonably large.
I tried to use an Artificial Intelligence website to find another source online. I had no joy, but it led to a dialogue about using its computing power to enhance what I had. The end result was quite impressive. Although, it is interesting. It’s lost some of the details of the original, albeit that was small, but has created quite a nice interpretation. I wouldn’t say it was true to the artist’s style though. Also, it became apparent on further consideration that the moon was in the wrong place relative to the shadows. It is in the wrong place relative to the compass too. It is in the north to north-east. The moon would never be in that part of the sky looking northwards along what is now Victoria Road.
“Clair de lune” translates to “moonlight” in English. The phrase is French for “clear of moon” and is often used to refer to the light of the moon or a scene illuminated by moonlight.
I was looking at the local Google Street views, based on my own local knowledge and came to the conclusion that it could be view of somebody leaving what is now Blackburn Old Road with Chorley Road on the left and heading towards Victoria Road.
The AI software was able to take my screen shots from Google Maps Street View and make an overlay. Although, how it did it wasn’t exactly how I was seeing it. I was thinking the gable end matched up with that of the current Ribble Dental practice.
Ironically, after I did all this, I did some more Google searches and discovered a much large image on another art website that I hadn’t visited before. I have posted that separately.
It was still an interesting exercise though.
