Critics during Sage's lifetime frequently compared her work to that of Tanguy, who was better known, and usually assumed that, when their work had features in common, those features must have originated with him. More recent feminist scholars have stated that the influence more likely was mutual—what Judith Suther calls "a constant, usually unconscious interchange." Suther and others also point out differences between the two artists: for example, the large architectural constructions that dominate Sage's paintings are quite unlike the smaller biomorphic or metallic forms that people associate with Tanguy's landscapes.