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LIVING AMERICAN ARTISTS.       603

that after all there was no higher plain in art than that which he occupied, who succeeded in rendering faithfully the likeness of God's chief work-the man and woman; in suggesting all that was within them and without them. And he set himself to work, with modest heart, to reach that plain. 

It was not until 1861 that Page returned to this country to remain in it.  Patronage waited for him, and the appreciation of his fellow-artists was generously bestowed - even by those who did not admire his method, for all respected him for his earnestness of purpose and unselfish devotion to his art.  He made his studio-home in the Tenth street building, where he has since remained.  Soon after his return he painted portraits of Collector Barney, John Hoppin, and other distinguished citizens.  He delivered lectures on art which were much esteemed.  One of these was delivered at the Athenæum Club.  He also published, about this time, his "Proportions of the Human Figure," a work well know to artists, and an authority. 

But these days immediately following his return were unhappy ones; too exciting in their fearful revelations of strife and bloodshed for this high-strung student, now too old to fight, but not too old to suffer.  The studios echoed the struggle which was going on without. Page betook himself for a time to Eaglewood, where he studies landscape among its peaceful glades, and experimented in color. 

From Eaglewood he afterwards removed to Staten Island, where he purchased a plot of ground, upon which he has since build the home now occupied by his family. 

Throughout this time, he retained his studio on the Tenth street building, changing, however, to the one he now occupies-above the Exhibition Hall of the Place, which is mainly occupied by his works, and the door to which faces you directly when you enter from the street. 

During these ten years since his return from Europe, Page has painted the portraits of many of our most notable men-soldiers, statesmen, orators, artists, poets, and divines-among them those of Farragut, J. Quincy Adams, Fenton, Phillips, Lowell, J.Q.A Ward, Henry Ward Beecher, and a host of lesser lights.  His latest and most talked of work, perhaps, is the "Head of Christ," exhibited at the Spring Exhibition of the Academy last year. 
 
Thus far we have sketched the outline of this adventurous student-life. 

But we cannot part thus easily with our subject.  We have still a word to say of this William Page we know to-day, and how he fills out the full days of a ripe life, for he is now within the last decade of the goodly threescore years and ten. 

Page was but twenty-five years old when he was made an Academician.  Honors were easy in the early days of the Academy, it is true, but in this instance, at least the success of the artist has confirmed the judgment of this electors.  He was thus fourteen years a N. A. before he left for Europe, during which time the higher academic honors were not distributed-a grave mistake of the institution, and one which it has since has occasion to regret. Within a period of forty-four years the Academy had had but four Presidents, and during the greater portion of this time the Members of Council were as fixed almost as the members of the Pleiades. It is true that occasionally a particular start dropped out of the constellation, but the general immobility was not materially disturbed thereby. In other words, Academy affairs were managed by a Council of which a large majority continued to serve, year after year, until the unpleasant impression became general that the Academy was controlled, in the main, by a few good easy gentlemen who were will content with the perpetual round of honors, the gala exhibitions twice a year, and-nothing more.

This led, as might have been foreseen, to a dangerous apathy, which for a time threatened the very life of the institution.  And it gave rise to what was known for a year or so as the "Party of Reform," mainly composed of the younger academicians, but of which the head and front was William Page.  These reformers, so called, had for their chief objects the thorough development of the Academy Schools and the elevation of the institution generally to the position claimed for it - that of the first Art Institution of the United States.  From the action of these reformers it ought not to be inferred that they were ungrateful for what had been done by the party in power, for they and their predecessors had done much-had certainly caused to be erected a costly Academy building, and stored it with a great deal that was valuable; the cause of their dissatisfaction was rather that these, the elders of the church, should rest content with this, when the evidences of progress, from year to year, were demanded by the artist members, by the press, and by the public generally, interested in the æsthetic development of the people. 
 
William Page was the nominee of the Reform