Morning Haze, St. Ives

Richard Hayley Lever, RBA (1875 – 1958)

Oil on canvas. Signed.

10” x 12½” (25.4 cm x 31.8 cm)

Provenance: Private collection, New York.

Richard Hayley Lever is recognised as one of the most important and innovative painters working in St. Ives in the first decade of the 20th Century. Cornwall was at the forefront of British art at this time and St. Ives, where Lever spent 15 years, was renowned worldwide as a centre for marine and landscape painting. In this beautifully executed example, Lever has skilfully accentuated the darker foreground shapes of the boats and harbour in contrast with the soft haze that suffuses the water, sky and buildings on the shore.