There are paintings in which an artist’s talents seem to gel with exceptional assurance. Loggers at Foster, painted in 1935, is such a work for Frederick Simpson Coburn and belongs, in our view, within that elite category even among his many triumphs. A friend of Alan Klinkhoff Gallery, investment guru Stephen Jarislowsky, would refer to it as “a first quartile” work by Coburn.

Coburn’s teams of powerful working horses hauling timber through the snow of Quebec’s Eastern Townships became synonymous with his art. Yet his finest paintings transcend their subject. Here, the logging scene becomes above all an exploration of winter light, colour and atmosphere. Sunlight plays across the snow, catches the freshly cut logs and illuminates the backs and harnesses of the horses. Even the small highlight along a horse’s tail demonstrates Coburn’s acute observation of light. Beyond them, the partially thawed river and distant blue hills establish a succession of beautifully judged spatial planes.

Dominating nearly two-thirds of the composition is one of the remarkable skies for which the expression “Coburn sky” became deservedly familiar. Great cumulus clouds, painted in subtly modulated whites, greys and warm creams, rise against passages of luminous turquoise-blue. Their scale gives the modest human activity below an unexpected grandeur.

Coburn’s extensive training had given him formidable technical command, while his friendship and sketching excursions with Maurice Cullen encouraged a more Impressionist response to the brilliance of the Canadian winter. These influences matured into a distinctly personal language.

In Loggers at Foster, Coburn combines his skill of painting his favourite subjects - horses, winter, light and sky - in extraordinary harmony.