This charming miniature watercolour by Willard Morse Mitchell
(1879–1955) is titled “The Little Red Sleigh, Dominion Square,
Montreal.” It captures a quintessential winter moment in early
20th-century Montreal, painted in Mitchell’s recognizable small format
and accompanied by his printed authentication label on the reverse.

The
scene depicts a horse-drawn red sleigh gliding through the snow-covered
streets of Dominion Square (now Dorchester Square) in Montreal. A
driver dressed in dark winter attire guides the horse through a softly
lit landscape, where bare trees frame the composition in delicate blue
and brown washes. In the distance rises the Basilica of St. James (Mary,
Queen of the World Cathedral)—its grand dome modelled after St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome—rendered in pale lavender tones that blend
harmoniously with the sky’s cool pastel hues.