|
In preparation
for writing this, I re-visited the Lady Lever after a considerable
length of time. To see it again was a revelation, & a
reminder that it is my favourite gallery. The building is
handsome, the pictures of the highest quality, & well
displayed. There are many other fascinating collections at
the gallery outside the scope of this site. Of particular
note is the interest, & enthusiasm of the attendants.
This gallery, at Port Sunlight
on the Wirral, is the creation of William Hesketh Lever, the
first Viscount Leverhume 1851 – 1925. It was built between
1913 & 1922. Lady Lever died in 1913, & the gallery
is named in her memory. She did not, however, play an active
part in assembling the collections. Lever must have had a
very high opinion of his wife, because as well as naming the
gallery after her, he added her name to his when he was created
a Viscount after her death, becoming Lord Leverhume. The Official
Opening Ceremony was performed by Princess Beatrice 1857-1944,
the youngest child of Queen Victoria. It is surrounded by
Port Sunlight, the model village built by Lever, an enlightened
employer, for
workers of his nearby soap works. Lever, who came from Bolton, in
Lancashire, created a vast industrial empire, based on soap
& detergents. A major point of interest about the gallery
is that it was the creation of one individual. He started
buying pictures in about 1886, initially contemporary art
only, but later on including 18th century paintings.
The gallery is a monument to the taste & idiosyncracies
of Lever. The 19th
century high art collection contains pictures
by the following Victorian artists:
Alma-Tadema
Burne- Jones
Sir Luke Fildes
William PowellFrith
Edward John Gregory
Sir Hubert von Herkomer
Eleanor Fortesque-Brickdale
Holman Hunt
Lord Leighton
Ford Madox Brown
Millais
Rossetti
John Singer Sargent
J W Waterhouse
G F Watts
The
pictures are a really excellent sample of those by the above
artists, & include
Laurence Alma-Tadema
- The Tepidarium
| A tiny, beautiful, & powerfully
erotic nude. |
Edward Burne-Jones -
The Beguiling of Merlin
| This painting
is taken from the Arthurian Legends the painter loved.
It is a most beautiful picture. The model for Nimue
was Maria Zambaco, with whom the artist had a passionate,
but doomed affair in the 1870s. The title is most descriptive,
as the painting beguiles the viewer to this day |
Edward Burne-Jones
- The Annunciation
| This picture was originally in
the collection of George Howard, 9th Earl
of Carlisle, patron & friend of the painter, &
himself an artist. Burne Jones had originally intended
to study for the Anglican priesthood. There is good
evidence to suggest that he did not sustain his faith,
for which the mysticism of his paintings became a substitute.
This lovely subtly toned picture is a good example of
this. |
Edward Burne-Jones - The
Tree of Forgiveness.
| Burne-Jones original treatment
of this subject was as a watercolour. It was displayed at the Royal Watercolour Society in the
early 1870s, where it was widely held to be indecent,
& the painter withdrew the picture, & resigned
from the Society. The portrayal
of nudes at this time in the nineteenth century was
a minefield, & it is not easy for us to understand
today why certain pictures were acceptable, & others
were not. To attempt to explain why this picture was
not acceptable, there are three points to be made. Firstly
the woman appears as the sexual aggressor. Secondly
male & female nudes are shown together. Thirdly
the female is obviously modeled on Maria Zambaco, with
whom the painter had a scandalous, & well known
affair in the 1870s. Incidentally Burne-Jones as an
honourable, & decent man, found himself in far deeper
water than an habitual Lothario would have done. In
this version of the picture the male nude, Demophoon,
has his modesty
preserved by a highly improbable piece of gauze!
For all this, the picture remains a supreme example
of the artists work. |
Sir Hubert von Herkomer
- The Last Muster
| Herkomer originally came from Bavaria, & moved to England, initially
settling in the Southampton area. Herkomer was a social
realist painter, really a painter with a social conscience.
This picture shows Chelsea Pensioners during a church
service. These pensioners were former non-commissioned
soldiers who were unable to maintain themselves. One
old soldier has died, & his walking stick is slipping
from his hands as he slumps forward. Only his companion,
sitting next to him in the pew realises what has happened,
at the moment portrayed by the picture, which is highly
finished, & boldly coloured, though perhaps lacking
in individuality. |
Holman Hunt - The
Scapegoat
|
This is one of the most famous Pre-Raphaelite pictures.
Hunt travelled to Palestine in the early 1850s, with
the express intention of finding genuine backgrounds
for the religious pictures which pre-occupied him throughout
his career. A goat was cast out each year on the Day
of Atonement, as a symbolic act of expiation for the
sins of the Israelites through the year. This is a most
important PR picture, with its vivid background, symbolism,
& attention to detail. Hunt was able, to produce
remarkable landscapes like this throughout his career.
Though his colours grew increasingly harsh in later
years.
|
Holman Hunt - May Morning
on Magdalen Tower
| Painted in 1890 this picture differs little stylistically
from Hunt's large paintings of nearly forty years earlier.
It is, though, a modern religious painting, unlike his
earlier religious scenes. Hunt as ever was concerned with
literal truth, but on this occasion as in many of his
religious pictures there is the underlying symbolism so
typical of the Pre-Raphaelites. |
Lord Frederic
Leighton - The Daphnephoria
| This vast picture was completed
by the artist in 1876. It depicts a procession in Thebes
held to celebrate a victory over the Aeolians.
|
Lord Frederic
Leighton - The Garden of Hespiredes
|
This must be one of the painters greatest works. It is a large picture
in an ornate round frame. It is an elegant balanced
composition, with beautiful colours & geometric
patterns. |
Lord
Frederic Leighton - Fantidica
|
Lever bought this painting direct from the artist one year before his
death. Like the Garden of Hespiredes, it shows that
the elderly, ailing painter had experienced no diminution
of his powers. It shows a single female figure who is,
untypically for Leighton, seated. The colouring is spare,
the figure being draped in white against a dark background.
She has the olive skin that Leighton so excelled in
painting. The overall effect is powerful. |
John Everrett Millais PRA.
Millais, a great favourite of Lever, is represented,
by the most comprehensive selection of his output in Britain,
containing some of his best, & some of his most superficial
later pictures. They include : -
John
Everrett Milais - Apple Blossoms.
|
This picture was completed in 1859,
towards the end of the artists initial Pre-Raphaelite
phase. Millais
worked intermittently on it for almost four years. He
experienced severe difficulties with the picture, &
it was badly received by the critics, who disliked his
broader looser technique. Many of the criticisms, including
the ugliness of the girls, & the supposed coarseness
of the apple blossoms are difficult to understand today.
The problems with distance & perspective are not.
The underlying message of the picture concerns the transience
of youth & life, with the apple blossoms representing
the young women, & the scythe at the lower right
of the canvass Father Time. The picture was sold initially for £1000.00. |
John Everrett Milais
- Sir Isumbras at the Ford
| The picture was condemned by Ruskin,
& famously parodied by Sandys. Millais experienced
problems with this canvass. He, twice, repainted the
horse being unhappy with its size. Having seen the picture
recently, it still makes a lasting impression, faults
& all. The powerful colours, & the subtlety
of the overcast, menacing background,& the brilliance
of the painting of the aged Knight all command attention. |
John Everrett
Millais - The Black Brunswicker
| This picture
dates from 1860, when it created a sensation at the
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The subject, which
would have been familiar to many people living, only
forty five years after Waterloo, concerns a soldier
of the Black Brunswickers
leaving Britain to fight at the battle, where the soldiers
of the regiment virtually died to a man. The soldier
is leaving the girl he loves, who tries to prevent his
leaving by holding the door closed. On the wall is the
equestrian portrait of Napoleon by David.
His impending death is signified by his black
tunic, with skull & cross bones on the shoulder.
The inclusion of the young woman's dog is a pointer
towards the more sentimental, populist direction in
which the painter was heading. The young woman was modeled
by Charles Dickens daughter Kate, who was to become
known herself as the painter Kate Perugini. The talent
of Millais for precise detail is still evident in the
creased wallpaper & the wonderful drapery painting
of the young woman's dress. |
John Everrett Millais - Lingering Autumn
| Dating from 1890,
one of his celebrated Scottish landscapes, painted mainly
for his own pleasure. |
John Everrett Millais
- Tennyson
| The painter (rightly),
felt this to be one of his best portraits. Tennyson
disliked it, regarding it as superficial, which in view
of the depth of characterisation
it shows is amazing. The plain
dark background, noble head of Tennyson, the downward
vivid slash of white of his shirt, & the one large
strong hand are powerfully dramatic. I suspect that
he did not approve of the commercial orientation of
the painter. |
John Everrett Millais
- The Little Speedwells Darling Blue
| A late, loosely handled sentimental
” pretty picture,” of a little girl. Really a late career
pot-boiler. |
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- The Blessed Damozel
| Completed in 1879, three years before
the painters death. Rossetti was both painter & poet, & this picture
illustrates the poem of the same name, which had in
fact been written many years before. By this time Rossetti
had left his PRB phase many years before, & concentrated
on painting symbolist paintings, usually of lone women,
in constricting, claustrophobic, surroundings. Unusually
the model was not Jane Morris, but Alexa Wilding. |
John Singer Sargent
- On His Holidays
|
Sargent is very much the odd one out in the painters in the Lady Lever.
He was American by birth, but spent most of his early
life in Europe, not visiting the United States until
he was an adult. He was one of the great portrait painters
of his day, also producing impressionistic watercolours.
This picture shows the son of George McCulloch, Sargents
patron relaxing after salmon fishing. This is an untypical
picture, as the artist tended to produce large formal
portraits, & smaller watercolours. Its broad free
handling of the paint is however typically Sargent.
It is a wonderful, & highly individual picture.
|
John William
Waterhouse - Tale from the Decameron
| Bought direct from the artist
in 1916 for £700.00. This picture refers to refugees
from the great plague of the 14th century,
whiling away their time in storytelling. This picture,
with its flowers & beautiful women, attractive dresses,
rapt expressions is amongst the finest of the painters
late pictures. |
John William Waterhouse
- The Enchanted Garden
| 1916-1917 Unfinished.
Waterhouse had not completed this picture, at the time
oh his death on February the 10th 1917. This
lovely picture, with its flowers, enclosed attractive
garden, & comely young women was the last creation
of this maker of visual dreams. That it is not quite
finished seems to be unimportant. |
William Powell Frith - The New Frock
|
When Lever
first started to collect paintings, he saw them primarily
as an advertising medium for his large soap
business,
and this I have included as an example of these pictures.
Frith was the famous painter of crowd scenes, including
Margate Beach, and Derby Day. It is widely felt that
his best work was behind him by the time he painted
the 'New Frock,' in 1889. Like other artists of the
day he strongly disliked his work being used for commercial
purposes.
|
Sir Luke Fildes - An
Alfresco Toilette
|
Painted in 1887-9
this painting was bought
by Lever from the sale of George McCulloch, the friend
and patron of Albert Moore in 1913. During his career
Fildes went through a number of phases, initially
becoming known as a social realism painter, then like
this painting, his idealised Venetian phase, and ultimately
working mainly as a portraitist. This painting is
quite simply decorative and beautiful.
|
Other paintings include :-
Lawrence Alma-Tadema - The Favourite Poet
John Collier - Water Baby
Herbert Draper - The Kelpie
Edward John Gregory - Boulter's Lock
Ford Maddox Brown - Cromwell On His Farm
Dante
Gabriel Rossetti - Sibylla Palmifera
The collection
also contains Turner watercolours, & pictures by Sir Joshua
Reynolds.
|
