These Notes from AskART represent the beginning of a possible future biography for this artist. Please click here if you wish to help in its development:
|  Note from Shirley Twitchell, Assistant Town Clerk for Londonderry, Vermont. She offers the following from the death certificate of the artist:
William LaValley - Usual Occupation Barber and Artist - born Oct. 31, 1862 and died December 23, 1943.
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Biography from Annaliza's Fine Art:
| William LaValley was born October 31,1862 at Rouses Point, New York, of French Canadian background. Jonas Joseph Lavalley is William's brother. William studied with Edmund E. Case, Irene Parmelee, and Melbourne Hardwick. In 1890 William entered into a studio partnership with Edward Parker Hayden, in Haydenville, MA.
Throughout his life William worked as a barber, exibiting his art in his shops. In 1898, he shares a barber shop/art gallery with his brother J.J. LaValley on Main St. in Springfield, MA.
He exibited at Gill's and Miller's Galleries in the early 1900's. LaValley subjects tended to be landscapes of Western MA and southern Vermont. In 1920, he moved to South Londonderry, VT, where he continued to paint and run a barbershop. Success came slowly to William. One winter in Vermont, LaValley lent a number of paintings to a bank; When he returned in the spring he was amazed that many of his paintings had been purchased. By 1928, his health started to decline, and he became totally blind by 1941. William LaValley died December 23, 1943 in Rutland, VT. |
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