About Noel Leaver
Noel Harry Leaver was born in 1889 at the School House in Austwick, North Yorkshire, where his father was a teacher.
Not long after, his family moved to Worsthorne, near Burnley, Lancashire. He was educated at St James’ School, Burnley and first studied art at Burnley School of Art.
At the age of 16, he won a National Scholarship to the Royal College of Art, receiving his full associateship at 21. Towards the end of this time he was awarded a Travelling Scholarship which he then travelled to Italy for 6 months (May – October 1911) where he studied painting and architecture. Then the following year, Harry did a second travelling scholarship this time awarded by RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), the Owen Jones Studentship, which took him back to Italy and from there to North Africa (February – August 1912).
He taught at Halifax Technical College (1912-15) and then Burnley School of Art until the mid 1930s.
A the end of the First World War, he took up watercolour painting. Establishing his reputation with paintings of the English Cathedrals, he painted extensively in North Africa (Algeria and Morocco) in the following two decades. He also produced watercolours of still life. Though he exhibited mainly in Burnley, he also showed work in London and Bristol, and in the United States.
His work was known for bright blue skies, often in contrast with shadowed buildings and Italian and North African landscapes.
Sixty-one Noel Leaver watercolours were left to Towneley Hall by the late Dr Peter Bracewell.
