1811 - 1885
William Page studied law and religion before choosing to become a painter under Samuel F.B. Morse. From 1826 through 1850, Page painted strong, realistic portraits as well as idealized pictures with mythical and biblical themes. In 1850, he moved to Italy, where he became part of the international art community that included Harriet Hosmer, Charlotte Cushman. Though Page won the esteem of such patrons as the British poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, he never achieved wide popular success. His experiments with paint and technique often ruined his pictures. And contemporaries did not share his taste for abstract aesthetic problems, such as the search to give painted portraits the monumental grandeur of sculpture. But in Mathew Brady
, Page found a loyal student. Early in the 1840s, Brady went to Page for his only lessons in art, and went on endow his photographs with a strong three dimensional quality his audience admired. Page returned to New York in 1860. Brady included this portrait in a special "Artist's Souvenir," along with images of Rembrandt Peale, William Page, and Charles Loring Elliott.
Mathew Brady Studio
Albumen silver print
(carte de visite), ca. 1864
7.5 cm x 4.6 cm (2 15/16 x 1 13/16 inches)
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution,
Washington D.C.