A village gallery with world-class holdings
The Victorian entrepreneur William Hesketh Lever began work on a village to house the workers in his soap factory in 1888. Port Sunlight became a model village of its type, with picturesque arts and crafts dwellings integrated carefully into the natural landscape. Lever later built a museum here in dedication to his late wife, Elizabeth, which was opened in 1922 as the Lady Lever Gallery, housing the best of his impressive personal art collection. Paintings by some of Britain’s most influential artists are on display, from Lord Leighton and Sir Joshua Reynolds to George Romney and J.M.W. Turner. The gallery also houses a renowned Pre-Raphaelite art collection, featuring works by Burne-Jones, Holman Hunt, Millais and Rossetti. The Lady Lever’s South End galleries hold the best collection of Wedgwood jasperware in the world, one of the finest collections of Chinese porcelain in Europe and outstanding 18th-century paintings, furniture and sculpture.
Read Less