Drawing from the antique: Cast of a faun, 1901 or 1904 (charcoal on paper)

Valette had a precocious talent for drawing and won many prizes while still a student. This detailed and highly finished drawing was typical of academic art school training. Its indistinct date of 1904 suggests it may belong to his period of study in Bordeaux. That year Valette won the travelling scholarship which enabled him to come to England. Valette's exquisite drawing is a copy of a plaster cast of an antique marble of the god of shepherds, Pan. His identity is indicated by the seven reeded flute held in the right hand and by two horns on his head. Sometimes Pan is also shown with goat's ears and legs like the fauns, other mythological woodland beings with whom this god is often associated.