Frederick Simpson Coburn was an exceptional painter of the impressionist influence. Few, if any, could rival him for his representations of horses. Winter Sunlight, 1939 is important in scale, and like other paintings of similar subjects by Coburn, it depicts a logging team doing their grinding work on a cold day in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. Notably, in his work of seemingly comparable subject matter, as an impressionist, it is the play of light on his composition is different and of intrigue.

Few knew the ability of Frederick Simpson Coburn better than did Gerald Stevens. In 1958, Gerald Stevens wrote and published the monograph ‘Frederick Simpson Coburn’:

"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] 

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Footnote: 

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