Spanierman Gallery, LLC is pleased to announce the opening, on February 20, 2003, of Hayley Lever (1876-1958), an exhibition and sale that highlights key aspects of this talented Australian-American artist’s career, ranging from his deftly-rendered portrayals of the Cornish seacoast to his equally remarkable views of New York City, New England and New Jersey. As demonstrated by the sixty oils and works on paper that comprise the exhibition, Lever was a versatile artist who embraced the modern spirit without sacrificing naturalistic interpretation. Lauded by critics of his day for his “invigoratingly personal point of view,” he was a tremendously prolific artist whose oils, drawings and watercolors reveal his aesthetic individualism and his distinctive treatment of color, line and form. The exhibition will be accompanied by a 112-page catalogue (available from the gallery for $40.00 postpaid) with forty color plates, featuring an essay, chronology and bibliography by Carol Lowrey and a preface by Marte Previti.


It is always a blessed relief to find an artist who has the courage not to be ashamed of his own individuality, and to face the world as himself, not as a member of some group or other. Meeting such a man in our day is like stepping out of a subway crush into a green and quiet place where a lone shepherd plays the Pan pipes under the trees.

I always think of something like that when I look at the work of Hayley Lever. In
all his painting, whether it is of boats dancing on the waters of the Cornish coast,
the ferry bridges and boats and streets of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the steaming asphalt highways of New York City, or the gently upheaving Catskills about Woodstock, it is always Lever who addresses us.
- Edgar Holger Cahill (Shadowland, November 1922)

Hayley Lever . . . is one of the freshest and most vigorous painters who are still allied with the Academy. He does not depend upon stale academic recipes but prefers to see and paint things in his own way.
- Lloyd Goodrich (Arts, 30 June 1929)

Cahill’s and Goodrich’s words underscore the esteem in which this talented émigré artist was held during the early twentieth century and the way in which American critics perceived his work. Indeed, after establishing a notable presence in British art circles, Lever settled in New York City in 1912 and quickly made a name for himself on the national art scene, winning awards and honors in the leading annuals, enjoying solo exhibitions at public and commercial galleries, and attracting accolades from a host of critics who praised his modernity, the diversity of his subject matter, and his artistic autonomy. By the early 1920s, his oils had found their way into major public collections in New York, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Los Angeles and elsewhere, and his patrons included such influential collectors as Duncan Phillips.

However, in the wake of his death in 1958, Lever’s reputation fell into eclipse. Although his name crops up in publications devoted to artistic activity in St. Ives, Cornwall and Cape Ann, Massachusetts, he remains something of an enigma to contemporary art audiences in the United States--an under appreciated artist whose work has nonetheless been promoted by a coterie of dedicated dealers and acquired by many discerning collectors. Both the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue restores Lever to his rightful place in the history of twentieth century American art, calling attention to his links with the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modernist and Realist traditions, highlighting his principal thematic concerns, and exploring his critical reception in American art circles.

Born in 1876 in Bowden Tannery, a suburb of Adelaide, Australia, Lever initiated his artistic training at Adelaide’s Prince Alfred College, where he was taught by the English marine painter, James Ashton. During the early 1890s, he undertook further study at Ashton’s Academy of Arts in Adelaide, after which time he went to London, familiarizing himself with the art of both the past and present in the city’s galleries and museums. Around the turn of the century, he spent two winters in Paris studying the figure. More significantly, around 1899 he went to St. Ives, an ancient fishing port and artists’ colony on England’s Cornish seacoast, where he received instruction in plein air painting methods from the British Impressionists Julius Olsson and Algernon Talmage.

Inspired by his picturesque surroundings and by the example of Olsson in particular, Lever painted nocturnal seascapes, typical examples being Harbor Scene, St. Ives (1904) and Harbor by Moonlight, St. Ives (ca. 1910)--evocative paintings that reflect the artist’s desire to convey mood and poetic effect. However, a turning point in Lever’s aesthetic development occurred around 1908, when, on a trip to the Continent, he had the opportunity to view the paintings of the Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Stimulated by the Dutchman’s vigorous brushwork, bold chromaticism and emphasis on line, Lever developed a bolder mode of painting which he applied to canvases such as Landing Fish, St. Ives, Cornwall (ca. 1910), The Port of St. Ives, Cornwall, England (ca. 1910) and Sunshine in the Hills--The River Exe (1910)--striking canvases characterized by complex designs, stylized shapes and a vivid sense of line and pattern.

Lever’s “unconventional” paintings set him apart from his Cornish contemporaries. Exhibited at the St. Ives Art Club, the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists and in Paris, Venice and Nice, they brought him acclaim in English and European art circles and a reputation as “an impressionistist of daring resource . . . with an unusual gift for eloquent design.”

Lever was also making a name for himself in the United States. He made his debut at the Carnegie Institute’s international exhibition in 1910 and arrived in New York two years later, making the United States his permanent home. Like his growing circle of friends, which included the Impressionist painter Ernest Lawson and Realists such as Robert Henri, John Sloan and George Bellows, Lever quickly turned his attention to the contemporary metropolis, producing intimate works on paper such as U.S.A. Battleships, River Hudson, New York (1912), as well as ambitious paintings such as Flags (1917), a sparkling canvas inspired by the visits of the British and French war commissioners to New York in 1917. His distinctive Post-Impressionist style won him numerous awards and honors, such as the National Academy of Design’s prestigious Carnegie Prize (1914) and a gold medal at the National Arts Club (1915). Critics and the public were enthralled with his work, finding his views of Cornwall and Devon progressive and at the same time exotic and highly romantic.

In 1915, Lever began looking for an American equivalent of St. Ives. He found it in the venerable seaport town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he made regular seasonal visits into the early 1930s. Indeed, Gloucester figures prominently in Lever’s iconography, its harbor, fishing boats and architecture the subject of paintings such as Fishing Schooners Gloucester (ca. 1920) and Gloucester, Massachusetts (ca. 1920s). Lever’s trips to Gloucester also provided him with the opportunity to visit other port towns and resort spots in coastal Massachusetts, such as Rockport, Nantucket, Marblehead, Annisquam and Brant Rock, where, in typical fashion, he focused on depicting boats and the sea, employing all types of media. Works such as Nantucket, Massachusetts (ca. 1920) attests to Lever’s remarkable skill as a watercolorist, while the delightful drawing, Marblehead, Massachusetts (1924) identifies him as a master of the rapid, plein-air sketch.

Lever was at the height of his popularity during the 1910s and 20s, during which time he reaped critical acclaim from the likes of Charles Caffin and Catherine Beach Ely and enjoyed numerous exhibitions at museums and commercial galleries. He remained in New York until about 1930, at which time he moved to Caldwell, New Jersey, remaining there until 1938, when he settled in Mount Vernon, New York. During these years, Lever painted marines and landscapes in New Jersey, Vermont, New England, New York and the Canadian Maritimes.

As revealed by a number of paintings in the exhibition, Lever’s late work is characterized by a greater degree of expressivity. His link with Van Gogh was at its peak during this period, when, as revealed in oils such as Irises in a Glass Bowl (ca. 1940), he turned frequently to a style characterized by thick, fluid brushwork and a strident chromaticism. That emotional resonance came to play a greater role in his work is also apparent in works such as Approaching a Farm (ca. 1930s-40s), which exemplifies Lever’s oft-quoted dictum that “art is the re-creation of mood in line, form and color.” Yet eclecticism continued to define his art, which could take on overtones of American Scene painting, as in Spring Landscape (ca. 1930s) and Belleville, New Jersey (ca. 1935) or become so minimalist in its design as to verge on the abstract, as is apparent in Returning Fishermen--The Jetties, Manasquan, New Jersey (1938).

When debilitating arthritis curtailed Lever’s seasonal painting trips after 1940, he devoted most of his time to still lifes and learned to paint with his left hand. After spending several years at Crestview Hall, a nursing home in Mount Vernon, he died in the local hospital on December 6th 1958.

Although marine painting remained Lever’s forte, he was equally at home depicting landscapes, still lifes, and the urban environment, working in a variety of styles that touched upon the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Realist and Expressionist traditions. The legacy he left us in his oils, watercolors and drawings is a testament to his maxim that
“Paintings may be abstract or realistic--it doesn’t matter. The greatest art of all is great enough to cover any method . . . If there’s enthusiasm in you, nothing on earth stops you.. Painting is a joyful agony --a labor of love.”