Inspired by Lady Lever at Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight
Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor
Lady Lever Art Gallery is paying homage to the woman who gave it its name – Lady Elizabeth Lever, in a brand new display aptly named Inspired by Lady Lever. It’s worth nothing too that the show is taking place during 2022 which is the gallery’s 100th anniversary year.
A recent discovery of a court dress, which belonged to Lady Lever, is the focus of the exhibition and provides an opportunity to shed some light on her story. The gown is displayed alongside a painting made posthumously by Maud Hall Neale, which shows Lady Lever wearing it. A treat for anyone interested in fashion and history, the shoes, stockings, underskirt and a feather fan which completed the outfit, are also on display.
She might be a household name in Merseyside, yet very little is known about Lady Elizabeth Lever – we know that she was a support and inspiration to her husband throughout the development of Lord Leverhulme’s business (the Lever Brothers were soap-makers, and eventually became part of the multinational conglomerate Unilever) and during the building of the village of Port Sunlight. The gallery was named after her, yet despite this, Lady Lever herself remains something of a mystery, and this summer’s exhibition aims to reveal a little more about her with the help of valuable artefacts.
