Bather Facing Left

Lever had a lifelong taste for Etty and he bought many more paintings by him than those displayed in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. Etty's female nudes found a ready market among collectors in search of pictures for private enjoyment and were the basis of his artistic reputation. This small painting and its pair ( LL 3596) probably date from the 1840s. They were the first of hundreds that Lever bought from the Scottish collector and dealer, James Orrock, a man who changed the course of Lever's patronage and profoundly influenced his taste in historic British art.