Frederick Simpson Coburn 1871 - 1960

Estate of Harry B. Marshall, New York
Private Collection, Toronto

Coburn's passion for depicting the winters of the Eastern Townships of Quebec established both his artistic reputation and his legacy. This shimmering canvas captures Coburn's recurrent theme of horses hauling a sled laden with logs and guided by a stalwart driver. The wintery landscape is bathed in radiant light that makes the snow sparkle and he further enlivens it with vibrant touches of blues and greens and soft pastel colours. Evergreen trees serve to punctuate the composition and add structure to a seemingly endless vista.

Coburn's paintings are idyllic images of our winters with none of its hardships – nor do they impose the realities of the modern world. Instead, the artist consciously takes us back to a simpler time.