Lady Lever, Liverpool and Late to Bed

Day Twenty-two – Liverpool

Is that the sun? Possibly. It's been a while and we might be forgiven for starting to wonder. Appropriate timing, considering our plans for the day...

Today was our second full day in Formby with family today but unfortunately Gareth and Rebecca have work and school respectively. Wyn and I gave Rebecca a lift so school as she doesn't much like the bus and any small kindness on a Monday makes you feel a lot better.

With the others off doing what they needed to do, Wyn, Jenni the kids and I piled into the car and drove down to Port Sunlight in the Wirral (on the other side of the Mersey), made famous (and built!) by William Lever for his Sunlight soap factory workers in1888. Lever was quite the philanthropist and his ideas on worker's rights and how they should be treated were enlightened to say the least.

The main point of going to Port Sunlight was to visit the Lady Lever Art Gallery, which was opened in 1922 by Lever to house his personal art collection and run as a charitable trust. The gallery was run "as a cultural and educational resource for his workers and the public at large" because Lever believed "the study of art refined and improved the life of the individual". Quite the man was Lord Leverhulme it seems. In 1978 it reverted to public ownership and now forms one of the Galleries of Liverpool which also includes the Walker.

The gallery contains an amazing collection of art and antiques, including paintings by Gainsborough, Turner, Burne-Jones and Rossetti, plus quite a decent showing of classical antiquities. Jenni got to see her "pre-laughalites" or "miserable ladies" as I call them, so named because the Pre-Raphaelites always painted their women looking pensive or unhappy. I enjoyed those too but I think Jenni nearly passed out a good few times in excitement.

I hadn't realised but the gallery contains a LOT of Napoleonic material, including a good half dozen or so busts of the great man, paintings, furniture and more, all in some way associated with Napoleon. I got to see the The Black Brunswicker as well which was great. Photos in books certainly don't do it justice.

Other highlights were an exhibition of Albrecht Durer's engravings and lithographs, an incredible bust of Ferdinando de' Medici c1700 , "Snowdrift" by Edward Onslow Ford, two really cool alabaster Egyptian canopic jars and the entire Greek and Roman antiquities collection. Lady Lever is currently battling it out with the Wallace Collection for the coveted Coolest Arty Thing of the Trip and looks certain to finish in the top three. Before we headed "home" we popped into the Port Sunlight Museum for a few minutes and Jenni bought some postcards of the now quite famous Sunlight soap ads.

Back home and we spent the remainder of the day eating dinner with the family and playing games in the evening. Wyn and I were up until after midnight talking our heads off about everything under the sun and I neglected by blogging responsibilities. My bad!

Cheers,

Millsy