Nat Gould

Charles Allen Du Val

Charles Allen Sharp Wall du Val was born in Beaumaris on Anglesey in North Wales on 19 March 1810 (1).

He was the son of Edward Octavius Caesar Wall du Val and his wife nee Sarah Eskildson, daughter of George Eskildson, the Danish Consul-General for Ireland.

Although the family seem to have first lived in Beaumaris, the children were brought up in Dublin. Hence the origin of the belief that Charles Allen Du Val was born in Ireland. Reference books usually refer to him as being an Irish artist.

Charles Allen Du Val was gifted both as a painter and as a writer. When young he could not decide which talent to develop as a career. Eventually he grew tired of trying to choose, and instead became a sailor. But after enduring the rigours of a stormy voyage to St Petersburg, he decided that life at sea was not for him (2).

He settled down to life as an artist, and became very skilful in drawing and painting. He also took up the new art of photography, regarded in those days as just a special form of draughtsmanship. But throughout his life he was also a most accomplished writer and enjoyed a reputation among a wide circle of friends as being a very witty and entertaining speaker.

In 1831 the young Charles Allen Du Val was living in at 51 Lime Street in Liverpool, where he painted several miniatures including one of his father. In the following year he was still in Liverpool but had moved to 26 Russell Street (3).

After their marriage Mr and Mrs Charles Allen Du Val decided to spend part of each summer at Douglas in the Isle of Man. On their first arrival he advertised that “Mr C.A. Du Val, Portrait and Miniature painter, begs to inform the Nobility and Gentry of the Isle of Man, that he has arrived from Dublin, and intends following his Profession here for a short time. Those who are anxious of possessing a memorial of one that is dear, have now their wishes in their power”. He himself would also give lessons, and his wife would “--- give INSTRUCTIONS IN THE ELEGANT Accomplishment of PAINTING ON VELVET, SATIN, GROS DE NAPLES, WOOD & Co, also the beautiful COULEUR A LA FRANCAIS, WHICH IS UNKNOWN IN THIS ISLAND.” (4).

They spent two more summers in Douglas. Then in 1833 they moved to Manchester, where the prospects of a successful career as an artist were more promising, and took up residence at 28 Copeland Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, then a village suburb. In 1842 they moved to 24 Carlton Grove (or Terrace) in Green Heys, also in the suburb of Chorlton-on-Medlock. By 1861 (5) the family were at Green Hey Lane, which may have been the same address, and there Charles Allen Du Val and his wife lived for the rest of their lives.

(1) Many reference books state that Charles Allen Du Val was born in 1808, but that is not true. In the 1861 Census he gave his age as 57, which matches with that of 1871 where his age is stated to be 67. That would mean that he was born in 1804. However he himself positively states his birth date was 19 March 1810 in his own handwriting in a manuscript owned by a direct descendant.

(2) The reference to the brief naval career of the young Du Val is from the entry in the Dictionary of National Biography volume 16 page 270 (1888), but his specific voyage to St Petersburg is from the obituary in The Manchester Times dated 22 June 1872.

(3) E. Morris and E. Roberts The Liverpool Academy and Other Exhibitions of Contemporary Art in Liverpool 1774-1867- A History and Index of Artists and Works Exhibited (1998) pages 208-209.

(4) Vivien Allen Du Val Tonight! The Story of a Showman (1990) pages 3 and 4.

(5) On 23 July 1852 Charles Allen Du Val with three of his family had made a visit to Buxton and paid the subscription to enter the prestigious Promenade Room in the Crescent. Although it had declined somewhat from its aristocratic eighteenth-century origins, promenading there was still very select, as the railway had not yet arrived in the town.