Sold for: $21,250

PROVENANCE
Acquired directly from the Artist by the Long family, England
By descent to the present Private Collection, England

LITERATURE
Anne McDougall, Anne Savage: The Story of a Canadian Painter, 1977, the canvas entitled Saint-Sauveur, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, reproduced page 162

In spring of 1920, Savage was one of the nineteen founding members of Montreal’s Beaver Hall Group, who held their first show - organized by Group of Seven artist AY Jackson - in 1921. Savage had a lasting friendship with AY Jackson, and the two corresponded and encouraged each other throughout her life. It is easy to see how the artists’ interests aligned in this work, with its rolling hills and open fields sweeping back to the horizon. The location is likely near St. Sauveur des Monts in the Laurentians, not far from Savage’s cabin on Lake Wonish. At her core a modernist interested in the formal techniques of painting, this view contained all the elements of rhythm, form and lyrical texture that Savage needed in her painting. The far undulating hills blazing in autumn colours, and the lake emerging in rippling bands past a small knot of trees, speak to a romantic vision of a landscape she was intimately familiar with. Savage would repeatedly return to this subject: the large circa 1935 canvas Saint-Saveur, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, is of the same vista; a similar panel, with the rightmost stand of birch trees still with their leaves, was sold by Heffel in November 2016 (lot 115).

This work, along with lots 533 and 535, 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.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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