Savage almost exclusively painted landscape, developing a romanticised vision of the Laurentians and lower St. Lawrence where she spent much of her time. This work is an exceptional example of the artist’s technical skill at rendering aesthetically evocative visions of the Quebec landscape while maintaining particular attention to the formal aspects of the painted surface. Here, she explores the compositional play between vertical trees in spring bud and the rolling horizontal hills in the distance. The precisely formed trees in the foreground appear to have been painted first, executed in economical streaks, with the further landscape painted around and between the sinuous branches. The hillside itself is contoured in chromatic drifts of melting snow and bands of trees in blues, oranges, and pinks.

This composition clearly interested her, and she would return to it in larger paintings: the same view appears in a canvas entitled April in the Laurentians (circa 1922-1924) in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada and exhibited in the McMichael Canadian Art Collections’ Uninvited show. Whereas that painting is more abstracted, with the pink snowmelt and drooping conifer rendered in rounded daubs of paint, in this sketch Savage showcases her skill at using texture and gesture to create a lyrical view of the Canadian landscape.

This work, along with lots 533 and 534, is from the collection of the Long family. Helen Long was a close friend of Savage’s, growing up with the artist in Montreal and later spending summers with her family at Savage’s cabin on Lake Wonish in the Laurentians. These works were acquired by Helen directly from the artist and have since been held in the collection through the family. This is the first time that they have been brought to market.

In 2021, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection presented the exhibition Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, including 15 paintings and over 60 drawings by Savage.