In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1899
- Died
- 1988
- Birthplace
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- Country
- New Zealand
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Portraits, nudes, city scenes and paintings of colour and sunlight
Why this life matters
Her career offers an alternative to a landscape-only account of New Zealand art, while the history of Summer Morn shows how a painting’s public life can change.
Timeline
Key moments
The Group
Page helped establish the Christchurch exhibiting circle.
Marriage to Frederick Page
Their household connected painting with a wider cultural community.
Wellington
The family moved from Canterbury.
Seven Decades
A retrospective surveyed her long career.
Training and a Christchurch circle
Evelyn Margaret Page was born Evelyn Polson in Christchurch in 1899. She studied at the Canterbury College School of Art and developed a practice grounded in drawing and painting people. In 1927 she became a founding member of The Group, a circle that provided alternatives to established exhibition structures. Her early career combined the discipline of observation with a willingness to show subjects that could unsettle prevailing expectations about what New Zealand painting should contain.
People in sunlight and in the city
Page painted nudes, portraits and urban scenes as well as landscapes. Summer Morn, exhibited in 1929, brought the figure into a sunlit outdoor setting. Later Christchurch Railway Station and Post Office Cathedral Square show her interest in civic surroundings rather than an exclusively rural national image. Colour helped organise these different subjects. The variety matters: a celebrated nude should not obscure the portraits and cityscapes through which she continued to develop her art.
Family, travel and Wellington
In 1938 she married pianist Frederick Page. Their home at Governors Bay became a meeting place for people working in art, music and literature. The family moved to Wellington in 1947. Travel also brought renewed contact with European painting; the 1960s included work with Oskar Kokoschka’s Salzburg school. These encounters formed part of a continuing career, rather than replacing the local people and places that remained important subjects.
Late work and changing recognition
Page continued to paint into the 1980s, including Nude with Magnolias and a commissioned portrait of Sir Alexander Turner. Illness and restricted mobility altered her working circumstances without immediately ending her practice. The 1986 Seven Decades retrospective brought a wide range of work before a national audience. She died in 1988. The later history of Summer Morn also belongs to her legacy: the artist supported its withdrawal after the model objected to public display. A painting’s success, ownership and continued exhibition proved to be separate matters, involving several people across decades. The late commissioned portrait of Turner also shows a continuing professional demand for her work. Public recognition included new paintings, not only the recovery of an early work from storage.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Evelyn Page
- Did Evelyn Page paint only nudes?
- No. Her work includes portraits, cityscapes and landscapes as well as nudes.
- Was Summer Morn destroyed after the model objected?
- No. It remained in the collection but was withdrawn from public view during her lifetime.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Frances Hodgkins
Compare separate careers and the contested public reception of paintings in New Zealand.
- Lois White
Compare different figurative practices beyond a landscape-centred national story.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyPage, Evelyn Margaret
- 2. Robert McDougall Art GalleryEvelyn Page: Seven Decades
- 3. Christchurch Art GallerySummer Morn by Evelyn Page
- 4. Christchurch Art GalleryGallery archive inventory, folder 16c
The archive inventory supports 18 April 1944; a 1982 gallery profile gives a conflicting year, so the later inventory and retrospective chronology take precedence.
- 5. Christchurch Art GalleryGood Works