The Plough

Artist
Location
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Date
1931-1933
Materials
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.4 x 102.3 cm
Credit
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, gift of Arthur B. Gill
Locate on map View in timeline About the artist

Anne Savage’s The Plough captures the rhythmic furrows of the field, compositionally comparing the curves of the tilled hills with the curve of the plough itself. In collapsing the distinction between land and tool, Savage reveals her understanding of the rich agricultural history of her home province of Quebec. Modernist in composition, The Plough equates evolution in agricultural practices with an evolution in aesthetics, charting transformations not only in the landscape but also in painting as a practice.