Both Suther and Régine Tessier, the latter in a sketch of Sage in "Notable American Women: The Modern Period," note key features of Sage's mature work. Most of Sage's paintings focus on free-standing architectural structures, including walls, towers, and latticework, which could represent buildings either under construction or ruined and decaying. Her use of arched entryways and slanted perspectives may in be attributed to the painter Giorgio de Chirico. Some contain figures that might or might not be human, hidden by flowing drapery. ("Le Passage," one of Sage's last paintings, is perhaps the only one containing a definite human figure; even "Small Portrait," thought by many to be a self-portrait, is hardly recognizable as a face.) Like Tanguy, Sage often sets her objects on deserts or plains that recede to immeasurably distant horizons. She renders her forms in meticulous, photographic detail, using a gray-green-ochre palette that Tessier describes as "reminiscent of the sulphurous light before a thunderstorm". Critics frequently called Sage's work disturbing or depressing, even when they praised her painterly skill.