An integral early member of the Christchurch-based art collective The Group, Evelyn Page (1899 – 1988) became one of the most pronounced figures in the Canterbury art scene of the first half of the 20th Century. Her distinctive impressionistic portraiture and still life paintings are vibrant, colourful, and unlike the more sombre explorations of many of her contemporaries. Art historian and curator Anne Kirker stated, “Evelyn Page has indefatigably explored fresh ways to manipulate colour, at the same time taking an unselfconscious delight in the rich, sensuousness of organic forms. A still life of fruit and flowers is rendered in the same opulent fashion as a nude or portrait. All her subjects are part of a vivid and continuing reverence for life.”

Young Woman in Bay Window, 1982, is a sumptuous portrait. It has all the hallmarks of Page’s distinctive style, including a warm palette and richly expressive paintwork. Created when the artist was in her eighties, the work demonstrates Page’s sustained vision and life-long commitment to painting.