| Noel Leaver | |
| Birth Date: | 23 March 1889 |
| Death Date: | 24 July 1951 |
| Nationality: | English |
| Field: | Painting |
| Training: | Burnley School of Art Royal College of Art |
Noel Harry Leaver (23 March 1889 - 24 July 1951) was an English painter and teacher.
Leaver was born at the School House in Austwick, West Riding of Yorkshire where his father Peter was a teacher.[1] Soon after the family returned to Worsthorne near Burnley in Lancashire. He was educated at St. James School and the Burnley School of Art. He won a National Scholarship to the Royal College of Art at age 16, receiving his full associateship at 21. Towards the end of this time he was awarded a Travelling Scholarship which enabled him to travel to Italy for 6 months (May - October 1911) where he studied painting and architecture. This was followed early the following year with 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).[2] [3]
Primarily a watercolourist, he was known for hot blue skies, often in contrast with shadowed buildings drawn from experience gained during his travels in Europe and North Africa.[4] Leaver was also known for his paintings of English cathedrals.[2]
He also taught at the Halifax School of Art (1912–15) and then the Burnley School of Art until the mid-1930s.
Sixty-one Noel Leaver watercolours were left to Towneley Hall by the late Dr Peter Bracewell.[3]