WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2020 – AN ARTIST OF LOVELY LANDSCAPES

By admin

Wednesday, September 2, 2020 

OUR 146th ISSUE

OF 

FROM THE ARCHIVES

HAYLEY LEVER

ARTIST

1875-1958

Hayley Lever, East Gloucester, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William S. Benedict in memory of her parents, Sophie and Carl Boschwitz, 1977.110.2

HAYLEY LEVER

Lever was born in Bowden, South Australia on 28 September 1875, the son of Albion W. Lever. He excelled in painting classes at Prince Alfred College under James Ashton and on leaving school continued to study under Ashton at his Norwood art school. He was a charter member of the Adelaide Easel Club in 1892.

Lever’s maternal grandfather Richard Hayley, owner of Bowden Tannery, died in 1882,and the subsequent inheritance was sufficient for Lever to finance a trip to England in 1899 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 Judd 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 late 1904 Lever made a trip back to Adelaide, where his mother was dying of tuberculosis. During his twelve-month stay he staged several exhibitions, 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 United States, 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, Massachusetts for several summers and at Marblehead, Massachusetts. 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, USS 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, 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 in 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 Aida in 1949, Lever was confined to his home, where he continued to paint from 1953 until his death.

Hayley Lever died on 6 December 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.

WIKIPEDIA

Hayley Lever, Interior with Table Top, ca. 1900, crayon on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Nion McEvoy, 2014.39.4

Figures on a Dock by Hayley Lever (1876–1958) Oil on canvas 20 x 23⅞ inches Signed lower right: Hayley Lever Questroyal Fine Art

66th Street, Looking West, New York, 1935 by Hayley Lever (1876–1958) Oil on board 8⅞ x 11⅞ inches Signed and dated lower left: Hayley Lever 35; on verso label: 66th St Looking West. / Park Ave Corner Hayley Lever. / New York 1935 Questroyal Fine Art

Cornwall, England, 1905 by Hayley Lever (1876–1958) Oil on canvas 9½ x 12½ inches Signed and dated lower left: Hayley Lever / 1905 Questroyal Fine Art

Waterfall, Woodstock, NY by Hayley Lever (1876–1958) Watercolor on paper 14⅜ x 17⅜ inches (sight size) Questroyal Fine Art

East river, 1938  Watercolor on paper 

Richard Hayley Lever is not considered an exceptional artist, although some of his paintings are very pretty and appear in the collections of important museums. They are rarely displayed, however. Perhaps his brightest moment came in 1924, when President Calvin Coolidge commissioned him to paint a picture of the presidential yacht, the Mayflower. The dour Coolidge always took an awkward photograph, and the one wherein he accepts the painting is the same. Born in Australia in 1876, Hayley Lever studied painting in England. He became captivated by the wild sea and countryside at Cornwall, a peninsula at the southwest corner of England. Just before World War I, he left England for New York where he became friendly with George Bellows, John Sloan, and other artists who comprised the “Ashcan School.”

Richard Hayley Lever 1876-1958 President’s Yacht “Mayflower” at Marblehead at Night, with President Coolidge Aboard Doyle Galleries

MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK

LEFT
The electric company building in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. appears in Hayley Lever’s paintings below. (Westchester County Historical Society)
RIGHT
City Scene, painting of downtown Mt. Vernon, N. Y. (Richard Hayley Lever, 1943) (www.1stdibs.com)
Courtesy Through the Hourglass.com (c)

 

LEFT
Hayley Lever’s painting of the Mt. Vernon, N. Y.
train station, in the style of the Ashcan School, 1930s
(www.1stdibs.com)
RIGHT
Railroad Yards, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.
(Richard Hayley Lever, 1940s) 

RICHARD HAYLEY LEVER, American (1876-1958), Lighthouse with Boats, oil on panel, unsigned., 12 x 15 3/4 inches

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EDITORIAL

How did I find Hayley Lever?  When we were publishing “Images of America-Roosevelt Island” back in 2003, one of our members Maria Harrison was working at Spanierman Galleries on East 58th Street.  I saw the exhibit and have a copy of the book about the artist.  I have been looking at the long neglected book on my shelf.  Lever’s story and art are interesting, varied and remind me of my favorite impressionists.

There is a watercolor of the Queensboro Bridge included, with simple lines showing the south end of our island.

Reading about his life with surprise that he was virtually unknown in his day. After his death, a treasure trove of works were discovered over 2,000 in all.

Enjoy his story and his art.

JUDITH BERDY

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Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated

Hayley Lever
Carol Lowrey
Spanierman Gallery, LLC
2003 (c)

WIKIPEDIA
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Smithsonian American Art Museum

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