Hayley Lever
Encyclopedia
Hayley Lever was an Australian-American painter, etcher, lecturer and art teacher.
on 28 September 1876. Lever demonstrated artistic talent early on, and spent his entire life focusing on this as his craft.
In 1899, Lever's grandfather died accidentally, and the subsequent inheritance was sufficient for Lever to finance a trip to England
to further his career in painting. He moved to St. Ives
, a fishing port and artistic colony on the Cornish
coast. The town's reputation as a centre for marine painting was largely due to Julius Olsson, who became a prominent British
seascape painter. In St. Ives, Lever shared a studio with Frederick Waugh, and studied painting techniques under the Impressionists Olsson and Algernon Talmage
. Lever also painted in the French port villages of Douarnenez and Concarneau
, Brittany
, directly across the English Channel
from St. Ives.
In 1904 and 1905, Lever made a trip back to Adelaide
, where he painted seascapes and taught. In 1906, upon returning to Europe, he married Aida Smith Gale in St. Ives’ Parish Church. In 1908, Lever did a series of paintings called Van Gogh's Hospital, Holland expressing the profound influence he felt from that artist.
In 1911, Ernest Lawson
, an Impressionist painter, persuaded Lever to move to America, saying he would have greater success there. Lever arrived in New York City
in 1912 and painted views of the Hudson River
, Times Square
and Central Park
. Upon discovering the American east coast, he painted in Gloucester, MA
for several summers and at Marblehead, MA
. Both artists developed spontaneous, bold painting styles, and Lever was accepted into Lawson’s circle of friends: Robert Henri
, William Glackens
, John Sloan and George Bellows
. He exhibited with this group regularly, but eventually left New York to settle in Massachusetts
.
From 1919 to 1931, Lever taught art classes at the Art Students League of New York
where he maintained a Gloucester studio and often traveled to paint on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. He offered this message to his students: "Art is the re-creation of mood in line, form and color. If I were confined to my own back yard for the rest of my life, I'd still have more pictures in my mind than I would have time to paint. Art is nothing but having a good time." Lever went to Pittsburgh in 1922 as an art juror for the Carnegie International exhibition.
In 1924, Lever was commissioned to paint a portrait of the presidential yacht, Mayflower
, which was subsequently presented to President Calvin Coolidge
in the Cabinet Room of the White House
.
By 1930, Lever had moved to Caldwell, New Jersey
, staying there until 1938, when he moved to Mount Vernon, New York. While living in New York, Lever painted marines and landscapes in New Jersey, Vermont, New England, New York and the Canadian Maritimes. Throughout his life, he traveled and painted extensively, including Nova Scotia
and Grand Manan Island in Canada, the Bahamas and Florida
, while often returning to Europe. In 1933, Hayley was named Director of the Green Mountains summer art school at Smugglers Notch, Stowe Vermont. Lever also taught painting classes at the Forum School of Art in Bronxville, New York from 1934 to 1935.
In later life, Lever was inflicted with arthritis
in his right hand, which prevented him from further travel and forced him to concentrate on still-life subjects instead. As his arthritis
advanced, he taught himself to paint with his left hand. However, following the death of his wife in 1949, Lever was confined to his home, where he continued to paint from 1953 until his death.
Hayley Lever died on December 6, 1958 at his home in Mount Vernon, New York. News of his death surprised some: Lever had all but disappeared from public view over two decades earlier, despite once having been enormously popular and critically acclaimed. Even so, he had continued to paint in the intervening years to such a degree that colleagues and dealers alike were confounded by the cache of unsold, and largely unseen, paintings in his Mount Vernon barn. Since his death, he has been recognized as one of the leaders of American Impressionism
in the 20th century.
Life and work
Richard Hayley Lever was born in AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on 28 September 1876. Lever demonstrated artistic talent early on, and spent his entire life focusing on this as his craft.
In 1899, Lever's grandfather died accidentally, and the subsequent inheritance was sufficient for Lever to finance a trip to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to further his career in painting. He moved to St. Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
, a fishing port and artistic colony on the Cornish
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
coast. The town's reputation as a centre for marine painting was largely due to Julius Olsson, who became a prominent British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
seascape painter. In St. Ives, Lever shared a studio with Frederick Waugh, and studied painting techniques under the Impressionists Olsson and Algernon Talmage
Algernon Talmage
Algernon Talmage was a minor British Impressionist painter. He is best known for tutoring Emily Carr during her studies at St Ives in England. His criticism was a significant early influence on her work, encouraging her earliest forays into the forest paintings that would eventually become her...
. Lever also painted in the French port villages of Douarnenez and Concarneau
Concarneau
Concarneau is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.The town has two distinct areas: the modern town on the mainland and the medieval Ville Close, a walled town on a long island in the centre of the harbour. Historically, the old town was a centre of shipbuilding...
, Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, directly across the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
from St. Ives.
In 1904 and 1905, Lever made a trip back to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, where he painted seascapes and taught. In 1906, upon returning to Europe, he married Aida Smith Gale in St. Ives’ Parish Church. In 1908, Lever did a series of paintings called Van Gogh's Hospital, Holland expressing the profound influence he felt from that artist.
In 1911, Ernest Lawson
Ernest Lawson
Ernest Lawson was a Canadian-American painter and a member of The Eight, a group of artists which included the group's leaders Robert Henri, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks, and William J. Glackens...
, an Impressionist painter, persuaded Lever to move to America, saying he would have greater success there. Lever arrived in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1912 and painted views of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
and Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
. Upon discovering the American east coast, he painted in Gloucester, MA
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
for several summers and at Marblehead, MA
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 19,808 at the 2010 census. It is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary and Devereux Beach...
. Both artists developed spontaneous, bold painting styles, and Lever was accepted into Lawson’s circle of friends: Robert Henri
Robert Henri
Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
, William Glackens
William Glackens
William James Glackens was an American realist painter.Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later moved to New York City, where he co-founded what came to be called the Ashcan School art movement...
, John Sloan and George Bellows
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City, becoming, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".-Youth:Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio...
. He exhibited with this group regularly, but eventually left New York to settle in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
From 1919 to 1931, Lever taught art classes at the Art Students League of New York
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
where he maintained a Gloucester studio and often traveled to paint on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. He offered this message to his students: "Art is the re-creation of mood in line, form and color. If I were confined to my own back yard for the rest of my life, I'd still have more pictures in my mind than I would have time to paint. Art is nothing but having a good time." Lever went to Pittsburgh in 1922 as an art juror for the Carnegie International exhibition.
In 1924, Lever was commissioned to paint a portrait of the presidential yacht, Mayflower
USS Mayflower (PY-1)
USS Mayflower was the second ship in the United States Navy to have that name. Mayflower — a luxurious steam yacht built in 1896 by J. and G. Thompson, Clydebank, Scotland — was purchased by the Navy from the estate of Ogden Goelet and commissioned at New York Navy Yard on 24 March 1898,...
, which was subsequently presented to President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
in the Cabinet Room of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
.
By 1930, Lever had moved to Caldwell, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, staying there until 1938, when he moved to Mount Vernon, New York. While living in New York, Lever painted marines and landscapes in New Jersey, Vermont, New England, New York and the Canadian Maritimes. Throughout his life, he traveled and painted extensively, including Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
and Grand Manan Island in Canada, the Bahamas and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, while often returning to Europe. In 1933, Hayley was named Director of the Green Mountains summer art school at Smugglers Notch, Stowe Vermont. Lever also taught painting classes at the Forum School of Art in Bronxville, New York from 1934 to 1935.
In later life, Lever was inflicted with arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
in his right hand, which prevented him from further travel and forced him to concentrate on still-life subjects instead. As his arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
advanced, he taught himself to paint with his left hand. However, following the death of his wife in 1949, Lever was confined to his home, where he continued to paint from 1953 until his death.
Hayley Lever died on December 6, 1958 at his home in Mount Vernon, New York. News of his death surprised some: Lever had all but disappeared from public view over two decades earlier, despite once having been enormously popular and critically acclaimed. Even so, he had continued to paint in the intervening years to such a degree that colleagues and dealers alike were confounded by the cache of unsold, and largely unseen, paintings in his Mount Vernon barn. Since his death, he has been recognized as one of the leaders of American Impressionism
American Impressionism
Impressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
in the 20th century.
Displayed works
- White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
- The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- Baltimore Museum of Art
- Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
- The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
- The Brooklyn Museum of Art
- The Nantucket Historical Association, Massachusetts
- New Britain Museum of Art, Connecticut
- Corcoran Gallery of Art,Washington, DC
- Dallas Museum of Art
- The Witchita Art Museum
- Des Moines Art Museum
- Fort Worth Museum of Art
- L.A. County Museum of Art
- The Westmoreland Museum of American Art
- Telfair Academy
- National Arts Club
- National Academy of Design
- Memphis Art Museum; Australia Art Museum
- Cincinnati Art Museum
- The Addison Gallery of American Art
- Sydney Art Gallery of Australia
Exhibitions
| 2010 | "Gilded Age to Modern Era Paintings: An Exhibition of European and American Fine Art", Galerie Werner, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| 2010 | "American Still-Life Paintings (1829–2009)", Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2005 | "Art In Bloom - Works from the Permanent Collection", Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL |
| 2003 | "Hayley Lever (1876–1958)", Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY |
| 1922–1946 | The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York |
| 1945 | Westchester Arts & Crafts |
| 1945 | Art Institute of Chicago; Machbeth, Rehn, Ferargil, Daniels, French, & Company; Clayton Galleries |
| 1914–1941 | Corcoran Gallery Biennials, New York, New York |
| 1940 | Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annual Exhibition |
| 1940 | National Arts Club, New York, New York |
| 1938 | National Academy of Design, New York, New York |
| 1936 | National Academy of Design, New York, New York |
| 1936 | Newark Art Club, Newark, New Jersey |
| 1934 | Salons of America, New York, New York |
| 1913–1932 | Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annual Exhibition |
| 1927 | Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery, New York City New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... (two-person show with Jan Matulka Jan Matulka Jan Matulka was a Czech-American modern artist originally from Bohemia. Matulka's style would range from Abstract expressionism to landscapes, sometimes in the same day.-Early life:... ) |
| 1926 | Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia |
| 1922 | National Arts Club, New York, New York |
| 1920 | Society of Independent Artists, New York, New York |
| 1920 | Buffalo Fine Arts Academy |
| 1918 | Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Pennsylvania |
| 1914–1916 | National Arts Club, New York, New York |
| 1915 | Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California |
| 1914 | Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester |
| 1914 | Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts |
| 1914 | National Academy of Design, New York, New York |
| 1905 | New Salon, Paris |
| 1904 | The Royal Academy, London |
Memberships
- National Academy of Design
- National Arts ClubNational Arts ClubThe National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...
- New Society of Artists
- Royal Society of British ArtistsRoyal Society of British ArtistsThe Royal Society of British Artists is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.-History:...
- Royal Institute of Oil PaintersRoyal Institute of Oil PaintersThe Royal Institute of Oil Painters, also known as ROI, is an association of painters in London and is the only major art society which features work done only in oil. It is a member society of the Federation of British Artists.-History:...
- Royal West of England AcademyRoyal West of England AcademyThe Royal West of England Academy is an art gallery where Queens Road meets Whiteladies Road, in Bristol, England.- History :The Academy was the first art gallery in Bristol. Its foundation was financed by a bequest of £2000 in the will of Ellen Sharples in 1849, and a group of artists in...
External links
- Art Encyclopedia
- The Getty Museum Union list of Artist names
- Hayley Lever examples on AskArt.com
- "The Exhibition", 1905 article from The Advertiser, Adelaide, 22 March 1905.