FS Coburn: Beyond the Landscape

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Illustrated biographies that do double duty by showing both the life and
the art are a welcome new trend. Frederick Simpson Coburn’s life and
paintings are closely tied to the area around the village of Melbourne
in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, where he was born and lived from
1879 to 1960. His wide-ranging work includes hundreds of striking
illustrations for books by the major authors of his day (Dickens,
Browning, Tennyson), as well as portraits, still lifes, and figures. He
is best-known, however, for his winter landscapes with horses—one of
which (a large oil with a wonderful winter sky) graces this book’s
cover.

Evelyn Lloyd Coburn is the artist’s niece by marriage. Although she
knew him only slightly, careful preservation and record-keeping carried
out by her uncle’s extended family provided her with a wealth of
personal records, family anecdotes, and other documents on which she has
based her well-organized and thorough text. Also included in the book
are small archival photos recording life in Melbourne and the Eastern
Townships at the turn of the century, as well as an index of the
artist’s works (140 paintings, pastels, and sketches, many in color as
well as black and white).

In his foreword, Michel Forest, Director of the Museé des beaux-arts
de Sherbrooke, stresses that the ultimate responsibility for the
preservation and care of our national treasures must be shared by us
all. This handsome volume is a valuable visual and historical
contribution.