Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings
Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, until 9 November
Even passion has its limits. The first Lord Leverhulme — that ‘Soapy Billy’ who founded Lever Brothers — was a man of many passions. Uxoriousness, philanthropy and, of course, hygiene swayed this confident, capable Victorian magnate. So, too, did art. Leverhulme devoted his final decade to the creation of the Lady Lever Art Gallery in his model village of Port Sunlight. A memorial to his adored wife, it is also a pantechnicon of the vast collection of artworks he amassed lifelong, but particularly during the 12 years of his widowerhood. Leverhulme had an omnivorous passion for art. Within that passion, inevitably, were blindspots and lacunae of indifference.
The Lady Lever’s latest exhibition, Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings, is a selection of 35 works on paper from the gallery’s collection — 30 acquired by Leverhulme, five by the gallery’s trustees after his death to round out perceived gaps.
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