Artworks

"Horses have of course been Mr. Coburn's first and greatest love. But next to these are skies – skies clear and cold [or] filled with threatening storm masses through which a hidden sun illuminates a distant line of hills; or [...] a warmer late-winter sky dominated by softly floating cumulus [...] Many of the outstanding Canadian artists have painted horses well, but few if any have mastered the technique of painting a sky of comparable truth and artistry." [1]
Gerald Stevens


Frederick Simpson Coburn was an artist of the highest degree of technical achievement. Coburn was one of the most highly trained artists Canada sponsored. He was born in the Upper Melbourne area of Quebec’s Eastern Townships, and years later was to return to celebrate their landscape and traditions. In between, the young artist first went to New York City to study art. The Royal Academy in Munich, Germany and London’s Slade School followed by art studies in Antwerp, Holland allowed Coburn to continue to hone his artistic skills before returning to Upper Melbourne in 1913.

The viewer is entranced by the obvious brilliance of Coburn’s description of the horse pulling the red sleigh. A closer look confirms Gerald Stevens’ observation as to Coburn’s skies. For our part we would elaborate by saying that the pantheon of Canadian masters painting clouds is limited perhaps to Coburn, Carmichael, Brymner, Fortin, perhaps Milne and likely a few others we have overlooked.

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Footnote:
1. Gerald Francis Stevens, Frederick Simpson Coburn : R.C.A. (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1958), 12