Matthew Farfan

Frederick Simpson Coburn, one of the greatest artists to come out of the Eastern Townships, was born in Melbourne (Richmond) in 1871. After attending Saint Francis College, Coburn studied fine arts, first at the Arts and Crafts School in Montreal, and later at art schools in New York, Berlin, Paris, London, and finally Antwerp, where he married and worked as an artist for twenty years.

Coburn's early success came as an illustrator for literary works, including stories by Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe. He later began to receive recognition as a painter. Upon his return to Canada in 1913, Coburn set up a studio in Melbourne, where he worked for forty years. Made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1920, Coburn was deeply inspired by the rural landscapes of his beloved Eastern Townships. He is most well known for his oil paintings of horses and winter scenes. Frederick Simpson Coburn died in 1960.

Winter 1921, by Frederick Simpson Coburn. (Photo: Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts)

To see the work of Frederick Simpson Coburn, or to learn more about the painter,visit the Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts.