PROVENANCE
Paul & Kerry Barber Collection H Fisher and Son & Worcestor House labels affixed verso

The Estuary would have been painted en plein air - from real life, and with a remarkably light touch.

The scene is evidence of Page's tutelage by the Canterbury regionalist painter Cecil Kelly, who was her outdoor landscape painting teacher. It is made up of traditional compositional ratios: one-third sea to two-thirds sky, with a pleasing, low-contrast palette. The deeper blue of the sea complements the sky's lightness, and both are mediated by the rolling green of the hillside. This is not a work which experiments with form or seeks to provoke a strong reaction in the viewer. Rather, it exists for its own sake; an essay from Page to the land, and as proof of the artist's act of observation.