Lawren Harris came from a wealthy Brantford family that co-owned the farm machinery company Massey-Harris, studied in Berlin, and spent a year and a half travelling and working as a magazine illustator before settling in Toronto in 1908.

Since 1910, Harris had been painting pictures of houses in a community known as "the Ward" which was home to many immigrants at the turn of the century. The buildings in these works present a flat friezelike pattern across the middle ground of the painting and are animated by the crisp morning air and muted light against the facades. For Harris, images such as this Quebec House on Redkettle, portrayed a distinctly Canadian scene, warm and cheerful, despite chilly early morning hours.

Harris was a member of Canada's most prestigious group of artists known as The Group of Seven.

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