F.S. Coburn (Frederick Simpson Coburn)

1871-1960

F.S. Coburn was born in Upper Melbourne, Quebec. As a young boy, he often sketched profiles and horses. His talent was noticed by a family friend who helped him get advice at Notman and Sandham in Montreal. Coburn was eventually guided to Council of Arts and Manufactures in Montreal where he studied under C.S. Stevenson. While studying, his immense talent brought him growing numbers of freelance assignments, notably for the Dominion Illustrated. In 1889, feeling that Coburn had learned all he could from the program, the school’s director advised his parents to send him to New York City at the Carl Hecker School of Art. After his stay in New York, Coburn went to Germany in 1891 at the Royal Academy of Berlin where he worked on his draftsmanship under Franz Skarbina and Julius Ehrentraut. Following his graduation from the academy in Berlin, he went to Munich for a short time for further studies. Upon his return to Berlin in late 1891, Coburn was met with the tragic news of his mother’s death and went back to Canada.

In the spring of 1892, Coburn once again headed for Europe and settled in Paris where he enrolled at École des Beaux-Arts. Having come from Berlin with very high marks, he became one of the privileged few to work directly with the master Jean-Léon Gérôme in his studio. For the next three years, while he kept studying at Gérôme’s studio, Coburn kept busy working on assignments for several North American publishers including Harper’s Magazine, McClure’s New Monthly Magazine and The Monthly Illustrator. This enabled Coburn to make regular visits to Canada during his studies in France and maintain contact with his family and friends.

In Canada in1896, Coburn met Dr. William Henry Drummond who gave him the job of illustrating his new manuscript "The Habitant and other French Canadian Poems", first of many works Coburn would illustrate throughout his successful career as an illustrator. For this job, Coburn spent weeks living with and sketching the habitant families, creating illustrations that reflected the French Canadian character. The finished work was largely acclaimed and Coburn would later illustrate all of Drummond’s works. Through Dr. Drummond’s connections and publisher in New York, Putnam’s, Coburn would later work on illustrations for Canadian authors such as Louis Fréchette and for American and English authors such as Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, Lord Tennyson, Oliver Goldsmith and Robert Browning.

In 1896, Coburn went to London, England, and enrolled at the Slade School of Art for the 1896-1897 academic year. There he studied under Frederick Brown and Henry Tonks and was encouraged to “interpret his subject matter instead of striving for a perfect likeness of it”. While in London, Coburn worked on illustration depicting Canadian Wildlife for the London Sporting and Dramatic News and also did work for the London News. In 1897, he left England and enrolled at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, and studied figure painting in Albrecht De Vriendt’s studio. In Antwerp, he met Malvina Sheepers, an art student that would become his wife many years later. In May of 1898, he won the coveted Belgian “Goot” subsidy, defeating Belgian, French, English, American and German competitors and becoming the first foreigner ever to win the Prize. This reward gave Coburn a free studio, tuition, models and costumes for two years, and free access to the art libraries. That summer he came back to Canada and started working on Dr. Drummond’s next book, "Madeleine Verchères", and once again went sketching habitants in the Quebec area of Beaupré and St-Joachim. There he stayed at a boarding house also frequented by fellow artists Edmond Dyonnet and Maurice Cullen.

Coburn went back to his studies and studio in Antwerp in 1898 and for the next fifteen years, while still coming back to Canada on occasion, he kept working on illustrations for various well known writers. In 1903, feeling he needed to pursue other interest, he decided to go to Holland and visit The Hague and get acquainted with the Hague School artists such as the Maris Brothers and Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch. His Dutch period was very beneficial and it greatly influenced Coburn’s future handling of his work, notably in his dramatic cloud formations and light effects under various atmospheric conditions.

Starting in 1910, Coburn took less commission works and started concentrating more on his painting. By 1913, he was refusing most of the commissions sent to him. With the impending war and his father’s failing health in Melbourne, he decided to come back to Canada, put an end to his successful illustrating career and become a full-time painter. When he arrived in Canada, he settled in his hometown of Upper Melbourne and had a studio built for him.

In 1915, with war raging in Europe, Malvina Sheepers finally joined Coburn in Melbourne. They later got married and divided their time between Melbourne and Montreal, where they also had a studio. At this time, Coburn, who had mainly worked with a more sombre “Dutch” palette,  or in black and white for his illustration work, started experimenting more with vivid colours after being encouraged by fellow artist and friend Maurice Cullen. Coburn participated in the Royal Canadian Academy and Art Association of Montreal shows, and exhibited at the Watson Art Gallery. He was now working on his favourite subject, Canadian winter landscapes with horses, subject for which he would be better-known and that brought him great success during the rest of his career. In 1917, an exhibition was held at the Art Association of Montreal regrouping forty original illustrations and Reproductions by Coburn, including the works used to illustrate Dr. Drummond’s works. In 1920, Coburn was named an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy, and was later made a full member in 1928.

When the war ended, Coburn and his wife started making trips to Europe once again. In the years leading to 1933, the Coburn’s divided their time between Europe, Melbourne and Montreal, and Coburn sold most of his works, even having difficulties keeping up with the demand. During the twenties he also started experimenting with etchings and did various commission works on occasion. In 1928, one of his paintings was exhibited at the Imperial Gallery of Art in London, and he also exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada that same year and the following one. In 1929, Coburn was awarded the Jessie Dow Prize at the Spring Exhibition of the Art Association of Montreal. By this time, Coburn was well established with Montreal art dealers, including major galleries such as the Watson Art Gallery and W. Scott & Sons. His success with the public was so strong that he was one of the rare painters, along with Maurice Cullen, who sold most of their paintings even during the great depression.

In 1933, when Coburn was sixty-two years old, Malvina Coburn Sheepers died of cancer while the Coburn’s were on a trip in Europe. This deeply affected Coburn who experienced a period of introspection and re-evaluation. He felt depressed and inert, and all of this took a heavy toll on his health. Furthermore, he refused to go out and stopped painting. Concerned, his friend and fellow painter Edmond Dyonnet tried to encourage him to go back to his canvases. Dyonnet brought Coburn to the Pen & Pencil Club of Montreal, where he was elected a member along side Edmond Dyonnet, Adrien Hébert, Paul B. Earl, Edwin Holgate, W.M. Barnes and others. Dyonnet also told him about a young model and professional dancer, Carlotta (born Marguerite Charlotte Lavoie), and suggested he hire her. Carlotta went to Coburn’s studio and that was the beginning of his revival. A strong bond grew between them, his health improved rapidly and his enthusiasm for his work was soon restored. From then on, Coburn painted many wonderful nudes, portraits and life-size figure paintings of Carlotta in her dance costumes, some of which were exhibited at the Art Association of Montreal in 1936.

At about this time, Carlotta and Coburn, along with Carlotta’s dance partner, Alvarez (born Gérard Hébert), opened a dance studio in Montreal. Coburn, despite being in his sixties, took up ballroom dancing and became a social success through his new-found interest and newly acquired friends at the dance studio. He later took up another interest, photography, and mainly took pictures of dancers. He eventually became a contributor to the Dance Magazine and his photographs appeared on the front covers of several issues.

In the years that followed, Coburn’s success kept growing. In 1936, he was given an Honorary Doctorate  in Civil Law from Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke. In 1938, he participated at the A Century of Canadian Painting exhibition held at the Tate Gallery of London. In 1940, a two-man exhibition was held at the Stevens Art Gallery in Montreal with Frank Charles Hennesey. In 1941, he was made a senior member of the Royal Canadian Academy and was also elected President of the Pen & Pencil Club in Montreal. He was very active in painting, showing his works in various galleries and exhibiting at the Art association of Montreal shows until 1944 and at the Royal Canadian Academy shows until 1954.

In the fifties, although he seldom painted, he continued to earn a good living from his past productions, mainly with the reproduction rights from various publishers. Over the course of thirty years, many articles were written about Coburn and his art. In 1958, his biography was published, and the following year one of his canvases was reproduced, along with a work from Louis Muhlstock, to promote three shows in Montreal regrouping over one hundred artists. Coburn died in Melbourne at the age of 89.

Collections:

- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Musée des National Beaux-Arts du Québec (Quebec City, QC)
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
- Museé des Beaux-Ats de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, QC)
- Musée d’Art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- Tate Gallery (London, England)
- National Gallery of Brisbane (Brisbane, Australia)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON)
- Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax, NS)
- Edmonton Art Gallery (Edmonton, AB)
- Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
- Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MN)
- Museum London (London, ON)
- Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon, SK)
- Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON)
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
- Musée Pierre-Boucher (Trois-Rivières, QC)
- Musée Beaulne (Coaticook, QC)
- Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Power Corporation of Canada (Montreal, QC)
- Sobey Art Collection (Stellarton, NS)

Affiliations:

- Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (1920)
- Royal Canadian Academy (1928)
- Pen & Pencil Club of Montreal (1933), President (1941-      )
- Senior Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy (1941)