"Fish Nets, Gloucester, Mass."

Circa 1935.
Signed lower left.
Complemented by a hand carved & gilt frame.

Hayley Lever (1875 – 1958)

Born in Adelaide, Australia in 1875, Richard Hayley Lever was best known for his paintings that synthesized the vivid colors of impressionism with the strong lines of realism. He experimented with numerous styles of impressionism throughout his career.

Lever showed maturity in his artistic skill at an early age, travelling to England in 1893 to study in London. It was during his time working at an artists’ colony in Cornwall, on the coast of St. Ives, that he became enamored by the coastal landscape, which would become a lifelong subject of his works.

Lever came to America in 1911, quickly becoming one of the most widely exhibited artists in New York City. Many of the scenes he painted at this time were of Manhattan. He also had a summer studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts. From 1919 to 1931, Lever taught at the Art Students League in New York City and became the Director of the Studio Art Club in Mount Vernon, New York.

Lever received numerous awards and critical acclaim throughout his lifetime and his works were purchased by major American museums, such as New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Washington's Phillips Collection and Corcoran Museum.