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Daughter of William Page (Possibly Anne Page)

William Page American
ca. 1837–38
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774
The sitter is almost certainly one of the daughters of William Page. Scholars have suggested the work was executed around 1837 or 1838, and thus would represent Page's first child, Anne (b. 1834), whose mother was Page's first wife, Lavinia Twibill. The eccentric artist’s tumultuous private life and romantic artistic aspirations brought about numerous separations from his family. Anne's mother left the family to live with another man while her father was away traveling. The couple's children were shifted from place to place, including a stay at Brook Farm, West Roxbury, Massachusetts, an experimental community founded by Page's transcendentalist friends, George and Sophia Ripley. In 1853, Anne and her two sisters joined their father in Italy, where the sitter met and married Pietro Fortuna, an Italian singer and voice teacher, by 1860. The work, along with a similar depiction of her sister, Mary Page (25.85.1), was bequeathed to the Museum by their daughter Emma Fortuna. Though sketchily executed, the small portrait has considerable presence, created by the girl’s delicate skin tone and expressive gaze.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Daughter of William Page (Possibly Anne Page)
  • Artist: William Page (American, Albany, New York 1811–1885 Staten Island, New York)
  • Date: ca. 1837–38
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: Oval: 14 x 12 in. (35.6 x 30.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Emma A. Fortuna, 1925
  • Object Number: 25.85.2
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

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Man and Child (from McGuire Scrapbook)
William Page (American, Albany, New York 1811–1885 Staten Island, New York)
Daughter of William Page (Probably Mary Page)
William Page (American, Albany, New York 1811–1885 Staten Island, New York)
ca. 1840
The Meadows
William Langson Lathrop (American, Warren, Illinois 1859–1938 Montauk, New York)
1897
Jerusalem the Golden
Thomas Hovenden (American (born Ireland), Dunmanway 1840–1895 Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania)
1892–94
On Hampstead Heath
James Hamilton (American (born Ireland), Entrien 1819–1878 San Francisco, California)
1856

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