Walter Gilman Page was an academically trained figure painter in the late-nineteenth-century mold who worked in New England. After studying with Otto Grundmann (1844-1890) at the Boston Museum School in the early 1880s, Page attended the Académie Julian in Paris under the supervision of Gustave Boulanger (1824 -1888) and Jules Lefebvre (1836-1911). He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1887 through 1889 and then after returning to Massachusetts showed primarily in the Boston area.

Due to his training he focused on figure painting and portraiture, occasionally creating still-lifes. He painted many portraits of notable New Englanders, including Governor Erastus Fairbanks of Vermont, 1900 (State House, Montpelier, Vermont). He was greatly interested in American history, creating paintings and writing on the subject. He is best remembered for his active participation in organizations such as the Boston School Board, 1894-97; the Art Commission of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on which he served as secretary, commissioner, and chairman over the period 1910 to 1930; and the Boston Commission on Historic Sites. He wrote Interior Decoration of School Houses (1896) as well as articles on art and history.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Boston Public Library, artist’s file § "The Observer," Art Interchange 42 (March 1899): 59 § S. C. de Soissons, Boston Artists: A Parisian Critic’s Notes (Boston: Schoenhof, 1894), pp. 38-39 § Arthur Chamberlain, "Boston Artists: Walter Gilman Page, Ross Turner," Art Interchange 44 (December 1900): 134-35 § Who Was Who in America (1968), s.v. "Page, Walter Gilman."