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"Eads Bridge, St. Louis on the Mississippi River," Hayley Lever, American South

Description: Hayley Lever (1876 - 1958)Eads Bridge, St. Louis on the Mississippi River, MissouriOil on board10 x 14 inchesSigned lower left Provenance: Private Collection, ConnecticutShannon's, Fine Art Auction, September 17, 2020, Lot 185 Hayley Lever’s (1875-1958) versatility has worked against his posthumous reputation. He was never associated with a single artistic movement, instead producing impressionist, post-impressionist, and expressionist works. While best known as a painter of post-impressionist marine scenes, his subject matter included landscapes, urban scenes, and still lifes across his 60-year career. This lack of a singular style or subject has given him an amorphous place in U.S. art history despite his obvious accomplishments. [Richard] Hayley Lever was born in Bowden, South Australia in 1875. He excelled in painting classes at Prince Alfred College (1883-91) and Norwood Art School (1891-93) in Adelaide. In the 1890s, Lever moved to England, studying art in London and painting at St. Ives, a fishing port and popular artistic colony on the Cornish coast. In St. Ives, Lever shared a studio with Frederick Waugh, and studied painting with Albert Julius Olsson and Algernon Talmage. Lever was a plein air painter particularly interested in the effect of sunlight on the sea. He painted in a distinctive style, strongly influenced by the works of Vincent van Gogh, that might now be called post-impressionism. He used a limited palette to paint the St. Ives harbor, particularly at dusk or in the moonlight. His strong contrasting colors and thick use of paint created a crisp and physical surface that earned him acclaim in Europe. Lever’s many St. Ives seascapes are among his most popular works. In 2017, his painting entitled “The Old Lighthouse and Fleets of St. Ives” sold at auction for $162,500. In 1912, Lever moved to New York to test the art market in the United States. In Manhattan, Lever met prominent U.S. painters such as Ernest Lawson, Robert Henri, William Glackens, John Sloan, and George Bellows. Lever exhibited with this group regularly in New York City, painting parks, streets, bridges and the Manhattan waterfront. However, he soon discovered the scenic potential of Gloucester, Rockport, and Marblehead in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts. Painting the charming cottages, narrow streets, and fishing boats of the New England coast reminded Lever of his beloved Cornwall. Lever’s popularity peaked in the 1920s. He regularly won awards and honors, enjoyed solo exhibitions, and attracted critical acclaim. Between 1919 and 1931, he taught at the Art Students League of New York while maintaining a Gloucester studio. However, when the Great Depression killed the art market, Lever fell upon hard times. He failed to find a niche in the 1930s, making no concessions either to social realism or to abstraction, and gradually drifted out of the mainstream of U.S. art. He lived in New Jersey from 1930 to 1938 but financial difficulties forced him to sell his home in Caldwell and move to Mt. Vernon, NY where he directed the Studio Art Club. Lever continued to travel widely including visits to the Canadian maritime provinces, Europe, Florida, and the Bahamas. In these later years, his palette became more vibrant and the brushwork thicker. Unfortunately, he developed arthritis in his right hand, which curtailed his traveling and forced him to concentrate on still-life subjects. He even taught himself to paint with his left hand. When he died in 1958, his Mt. Vernon estate included numerous unsold and unseen paintings in his barn. During his lifetime, Hayley Lever appealed to U.S. collectors by balancing the use of some modernist techniques with a continuing realist emphasis. He developed a spontaneous-looking style that used vivid colors and strong lines while portraying subject matter that wads recognizable and appealing. Lever’s appeal in the twenty-first century continues to rest on this foundation. Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. Opened in 1874, Eads Bridge was the first bridge erected across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive; Eads Bridge is the oldest bridge on the river. At 520 feet between the piers, the center arch of Eads Bridge was the longest rigid span ever built at the time of its construction (only a few suspension bridges had longer spans). It remained the longest rigid span until the completion of the 525 foot (160 meter) arch of Gustave Eiffel's Maria Pia Bridge, in Porto, Portugal, in 1877. Extending more than 100 ft below water level, the foundations for Eads Bridge were the deepest underwater constructions of their time. They were installed using pneumatic caissons, a pioneering application of caisson technology in the United States and, at the time, by far the largest caissons ever built. The Eads Bridge caissons were the model for subsequent projects, including the Brooklyn Bridge, which was constructed just a few years later. During construction, the partially-completed arches were suspended from above, on cables rigged to temporary wooden towers which were erected on top of the piers. This procedure avoided the need for temporary supports standing in the river and is sometimes cited as the first use of the "cantilever principle" for a large bridge. In addition to its age and size, Eads Bridge is noted for the material used in its construction. Much of the metal in the bridge is wrought iron but the primary load-carrying components of the arches were made from steel. This was the first large-scale application of steel as a structural material and initiated the shift from wrought-iron to steel as the default material for large structures. Eads Bridge became a famous image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the Gateway Arch was completed. It is still in use. The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and carries vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It connects Washington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri with Riverpark Drive and, eventually, East Broadway, both in East St. Louis, Illinois. The former railroad deck now carries the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system, providing commuter train service between St Louis and communities on the Illinois side of the river. The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. As of April 2014, it carries about 8,100 vehicles daily, down 3,000 since the new Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened in February 2014.

Price: 9000 USD

Location: New York, New York

End Time: 2024-08-19T21:26:20.000Z

Shipping Cost: 100 USD

Product Images

"Eads Bridge, St. Louis on the Mississippi River," Hayley Lever, American South"Eads Bridge, St. Louis on the Mississippi River," Hayley Lever, American South"Eads Bridge, St. Louis on the Mississippi River," Hayley Lever, American South

Item Specifics

Restocking Fee: No

Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer

All returns accepted: Returns Accepted

Item must be returned within: 14 Days

Refund will be given as: Money Back

Painting Surface: Board

Features: Framed, Signed

Region of Origin: US

Width (Inches): 23

Listed By: Dealer or Reseller

Subject: Landscape

Size: Medium (up to 36in.)

Material: Oil

Height (Inches): 19

Date of Creation: 1900-1949

Artist: Hayley Lever

Style: Impressionism

Color: Multi-Color

Original/Licensed Reproduction: Original

Unit of Sale: Single-Piece Work

Type: Painting

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