Lot 228: Anne Douglas Savage 1896 - 1971 Canadian oil on

Anne Douglas Savage 1896 - 1971 Canadian oil on board Dr. Wright's Farm 12 x 14 inches 30.5 x 35.6 centimeters Literature:Evelyn Walters, The Women of Beaver Hall, Canadian Modernist Painters, 2003, page 110 Mary MacDonald Trudel, editor, Chantal Généreux, translator, Le groupe Beaver Hall Group, 2007, reproduced page 35 Provenance:A gift from the Artist to Dr. H.P. Wright, Quebec By descent to the present Private Collection, Quebec Exhibited:Bishop's University, Knowlton, Beaver Hall Group, April 21, 2007, traveling to Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc., Montreal, April 25 - 28, 2007, catalogue #30 In the 1920s, the art world was male-dominated, but Anne Savage and her fellow women artists of the Beaver Hall Group forged significant inroads. United by their passion for art, they kept life-long connections, often exhibiting together. They had strong supporters, such as Eric Brown at the National Gallery of Canada, thus Savage's work was regularly included in exhibitions there. Savage was a respected art educator and a pillar of the art community - a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters, she was elected its Montreal president in 1949. Her work embodied the spirit of modernism, and was known for its strength and clarity. In her praise, Barbara Meadowcroft wrote, "Anne Savage believed in art as the expression of what was highest in the human spirit. Whether she was painting or awakening others to the beauty around them, she worked with self-abandonment, intensity and joy." In this fine rural scene, Savage expresses the robust energy of the sun-washed land, pressed at its borders by dense forest. Orange and red highlights from earth to sky add to the drama and vigour of the scene.