Cornelius Krieghoff and his family moved in 1853 to Quebec City, where he painted views of the city and surrounding region. Among his best-loved works from this period are the emblematic figures of First Nations peoples that he encountered, including the Huron-Wendat woman depicted here. Loaded with leather moccasins at her side and wearing long snowshoes, the moccasin seller is depicted walking among the dramatically thrusted ice floes of a frozen-over St. Lawrence River. In the background, the citadel and rooftops of Quebec City front the further hills of the Laurentians, glowing beneath the late-afternoon sky. Krieghoff’s view of Indigenous people was fundamentally romantic, and he saw their lives as mysterious. Scenes such as these were particularly attractive to local merchants and the military men from Britain, who took them home as exotic reminders of their life in Canada; about a third of Krieghoff’s oevre is devoted to the depiction of Frist Nations people.