signed and dated 1929 lower left; titled on a gallery label on the reverse
13 × 21.5 in (33.0 × 54.6 cm)
Auction Estimate:$5,000 - $7,000
Sale date:May 28, 2025
Price Realized
$7,200
(including Buyer's Premium)
Provenance
Masters Gallery, Calgary
Private Collection
Literature
Evelyn L. Coburn, "Coburn Beyond the Landscape", Erin, 1996, pages 67, 87
From his time as a young boy Frederick Simpson Coburn enjoyed sketching horses. When he turned to oil painting in 1914 at the encouragement of Maurice Cullen, Coburn would specialize in depicting horses and horse-drawn sleds in the Laurentian and Eastern Townships settings. Here, under a soft blue sky and fluffy clouds, a figure commands two horses pulling a pile of logs, the results of a hard day's work. The traditional life and inhabitants in the Canadian landscape were continually of great interest to Coburn and featured heavily in his works. 1929 was a significant year for Coburn in the advancement of his career, as he established himself with dealers in Montreal and would exhibit at the Art Association of Montreal’s Spring Exhibition that year.