Lady Lever Art Gallery

Millionaire, entrepreneur and philanthropist soap manufacturer William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925), later elevated to the peerage as 1st Viscount Leverhulme, dedicated the gallery to the memory of his wife Elizabeth.

Lever began collecting art simply as a means of promoting his product Sunlight Soap. He purchased what he described as 'pretty pictures' that his customers, chiefly housewives might like. Lever had the pictures copied and then ingeniously inserted coupons in the soap wrapper enabling the buyer to collect them and order a print of their choice. In a period of 20 years up to 1906 Lever is estimated to have spent £2 million on advertising a sum then unheard of. The idea continues to this day, if on a different scale.

The Wirral based gallery contains the best of his personal art collection and includes works by, Turner, Reynolds, Stubbs. Etty, Constable, Romney, Millais and 20th century artists such as Gerald Brockhurst, Laura Knight, Augustus John and sculpture by Jacob Epstein.