Horse-Drawn Sleigh, Winter , 1930

Private Collection, Montreal

Evelyn Lloyd Coburn, F.S. Coburn: Beyond the Landscape, Erin, Ontario, 1996, pages 67, 78 and 83

In the winter of 1914, Frederick S. Coburn erected a studio suitable for his artistic needs in Upper Melbourne, Quebec, across the road from his father’s general store and set well back in the trees. It was here that Coburn began “working on half a dozen winter things, all Canadian - logging and life in the woods.” In his endeavour to find a central theme, Coburn started with illustrating the Quebec winter countryside with “its acres of snow, vivid blue skies, shifting clouds, birches and fir trees.” After perfecting the landscape, Coburn began adding figures to the scenes to add vigour and vitality, and soon the artist’s quintessential winter scene with horse and sleigh in oil was solidified. This was in fact a composition that Coburn had previously illustrated for William Henry Drummond’s 1901 poem, Johnnie Courteau, with “a horse and a sleigh approaching from the distance in a panorama of white snow-covered fields, rolling hills and evergreens.” This classic oeuvre won Coburn much acclaim, so much so that the artist was hard pressed to meet the demands of his clientele in Montreal, who were introduced to the paintings by the Watson Art Gallery and wanted a memory of the Quebec countryside for their own home.