​The Lady Lever Gallery is located in Port Sunlight on the other side of the River Mersey from Liverpool. (It is a short train ride from downtown Liverpool).

The area was not named Port Sunlight because of the local weather. Rather, it was named after Sunlight Soap, which was the principal product of the Lever Brothers company at the time this area was developed. Lord William Lever discovered what was then a marshy area near his factory and decided to build a model community for the workers. Construction began in 1888 and continued into the 1930s.

Today, Port Sunlight is a middle-class community with trees and parks and includes some 900 buildings of historical interest.

To enrich this model community, Lord Lever decided to build a museum to house his art collection.  Originally, his interest in art centered upon advertising the products his company manufactured. However, as time went on, he became interested in fine art and the decorative arts. His collection grew to some 20,000 works of art.

In 1913, Lever commissioned architects William and Segar Owen to design the home for the collection. Their design combined Beaux-Arts and classical elements resulting in a stately edifice. It opened to the public in 1922. Lord Lever named the museum as a memorial to his wife.

The collection reflects popular tastes in the Victorian and Edwardian era. For example, it is very strong in Pre-Raphaelite works including works by Rosetti, Millais, Holman Hunt, Ford Madox Brown and Burne-Jones. Lord Leighton is also represented as are earlier British artists including Constable, Turner, Stubbs, Gainsborough and Reynolds. A work by American John Singer Sargent who spent much of his career in London is also part of the collection.

Another of Lever's interests was the Napoleonic era and the collection includes furniture and relics from that period including the Emperor's death mask. One of the relatively few paintings by non-British artists is Elizabeth Vigee Le Brun's portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton. Also in the collection is Abbot's portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson.

In addition, the Lever collection includes Chinese porcelain, Roman and Greek sculpture and a fine collection of Wedgewood jasperware.

The works are displayed in galleries that combine furniture, statuary and paintings. There are grand decorative elements adorning the rooms. Natural light comes in through the skylights. In other words, the galleries are not bare rooms with rows of paintings. It is an attractive setting.

There is good signage but sometimes the placards for a particular area are grouped together rather than next to each work.

For more information on visiting, see the National Museums Liverpool website.

Places to see art ​ - Liverpool, England - Lady Lever Art Gallery