Richard Hayley Lever stated during his lifetime :

“Art is the recreation of mood in line, form and color.  If I were confined to my own backyard

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.”

This attitude is evident is most of his works - his almost child-like pleasure in putting paint to canvas was always apparent,

whether a misty harbor scene or the exuberant color of nature. 

We are please to currently offer a number of excellent Lever paintings :

one being a very rare painting not only for Lever, but for American history -

that of the St. Louis Paddle-Steamer "Mark Twain", and the historic St. Louis Eads Bridge, that when built employed such new techniques that an elephant was forced to precede humans on the first crossing in 1874.  In 1902, the Chicago Tribune documented a rare afternoon on this boat, when, beneath the flags of France and America, with the descendants of Lafayette and Rochambeau, Mark Twain steered the harbor boat up the Mississippi for his final ride.  The boat was subsequently named after him :

There was cryin' and cursin', but Mark yelled out,
Over all the infernal roar:
"I'll hold her nozzle agin the bank
Till the last galoot's ashore!"

Through the thick, black smoke of the harbor boat
Mark Twain's loud drawl was heard,
And they all had trust in his cussedness
And knowed he would keep his word.

But soon as they run the gang plank out
They hurried to git ashore,
Fur they knowed Ole Mark hadn't steered a boat
Fur forty years or more.

I can only imagine a meeting of the two - the painter and the “penner”. 

This painting may be as close as they could come. 

Mark Twain died in 1910, just two years before Hayley Lever immigrated to America.

Click for more information about the construction of the historic Eads Bridge

LEVER, Richard Hayley (1876-1958)

Birth place: Adelaide, South Australia

Death place: Mt. Vernon, NY

Addresses: NYC; Mt. Vernon, NY

Profession: Painter

Studied: Prince Alfred Club, Adelaide; Art Students League; Paris; London.

Exhibited: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annual;, 1913-32, 1940 (medal, 1917; gold medal, 1926);

Corcoran Gallery biennials, 1914-41 (12 times); National Arts Club  1914-15 (prizes); Pan-Pacific Expo,

1915; National Academy of Design, 1914, 1936, 1938 (prizes); NAC, 1914-16, 1922, 1940;

Philadelphia Watercolor Club, 1918 (prize); Sesqui-Centennial Expo, Philadelphia, 1926 (prize); Montclair

 Art Academy, 1930 (prize); New Rochelle Art Academy, 1941 (prize); Art Institute of Chicago; Society

of Independent Artists, 1920; Salons of America , 1934; Whitney Museum of American Art, 1922-46;

Newark Art Club, 1936 (prize); Westchester Arts & Crafts, 1945 (prize); Macbeth, Rehn,

Ferargil, Daniels, French & Co.,

Clayton, & other NYC galleries.

Member: National Academy of Design; American Painters & Engravers; National Arts Club;

Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts; Royal British Artists, London; Associate National Academy, 1925;

National Academician, 1933; Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London;

Royal West of England Academy; Contemporary; New

Society Artists; Woodstock Art Association

Work: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Montclair

Art Museum; Boston Museum of Art; Corcoran Gallery of Art; White House, Washington, DC; Ft.

Worth Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Fine Art; Los Angeles Museum of Art; Telfair Academy; Detroit

Institute of Art; Des Moines Art Museum; Woodstock Art Association; University Nebraska;

Phillips Memorial Gallery; Duquesne Club, Pittsburgh; National Arts Club;

Adelaide (So. Australia) Art Museum; Sydney (Australia) Art Museum; Whitney Museum of American Art;

Syracuse Museum FA; Antioch College; City Art Museum

of St. Louis; Memphis Art Museum; Springville (Utah) Art Academy; Perth Amboy (NJ) Public Library;

Little Rock Art Museum; Salt Lake City University Museum; Lincoln (NE) University

Comments: Best known as a Post-Impressionist of marine scenes, he was active in St. Ives, England,

beginning c.1895. In 1911, Ernest Lawson persuaded him to emigrate to the U.S.

After the Depression forced him to give up his home in Caldwell, NJ, he became director of the

Studio Art Club, in Mt. Vernon, NY. He spent his summers at Gloucester, MA, for twenty years.

In addition to Caldwell, NJ, he painted in Manasquan (NJ), Woodstock (NY),

 Nantucket, Vermont, and Monhegan Island (ME). In later years his palette became more vibrant.

Signature note: His signature was typically bold and slashing during the 1910s-20s,

while his later signatures have fewer flourishes.

Sources: WW53; WW47; Curtis, Curtis, and Lieberman, 32, 184; Woodstock AA; Falk, Exh. Record Series.

This biography is drawn from “Who Was Who in American Art” , the reference book on the cultural life in the United States.

Addison Gallery of American Art

Art Gallery of South Australia

Butler Institute of American Art

Cheekwood Museum of Art & Botanical Garden

Colby College Museum of Art

Corcoran Gallery of Art

Everson Museum Of Art

Flint Museum of Art

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, MH De Young

Heckscher Museum

High Museum of Art

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Museum of Art at Brigham Young University

Museum of the City of New York

Neuberger Museum of Art

New Jersey State Museum

Norton Museum of Art

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery

Spencer Museum of Art

Telfair Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art

The Brooklyn Museum of Art

The Corcoran Gallery of Art

The Detroit Institute of Arts

The Hudson River Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Montclair Art Museum

The Phillips Collection

Yale University Art Gallery

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Richard Hayley Lever, Paddle Steamer Mark Twain, Mississippi River Eads Bridge at St. Louis

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