Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal
Private Collection, Ontario
The quintessential Coburn compositions are those of logging scenes in the crisp Canadian winter. Like his contemporaries who had recently returned to Quebec from Europe, including Gagnon, Suzor-Coté, Morrice and Cullen, he was determined to depict the radiant light and snowy shadows of the Canadian winter season. He was most inspired by Cullen’s depictions of the same subject, however Coburn rejected his sombre palette borrowed from European traditions. Rather, in paintings such as “A Team of Horses Hauling Logs,” he employed sharper colours and captured the brilliance of the limited hours of sunlight on a winter day. Coburn had a particular fondness of horses, which appeared in the majority of these canvases of the Quebec Eastern Townships. His charming winter scenes became popular imagery for Christmas cards and calendars, beginning in the late 1920s.
