McNicoll is best known today as a painter of women and children, but few of her works can be described as representations of motherhood. In the Shadow of the Tree is one possible exception. This moment of repose is a good example of the tranquil studies of modern women taken up by McNicoll in the later years of her career. These works, frequently featuring women reading and sewing, belong to a long artistic tradition that record women inhabiting their own inner worlds while quietly performing domestic tasks or leisure activities.