Frederick Simpson Coburn was born on March 18, 1871, in the small village of Upper Melbourne in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, about 90 miles southeast of Montreal. Soon after enrolling in the Council of Arts and Manufactures school in Montreal he had outgrown its opportunities and went to the Carl Hecker School of Art in New York City. In 1890, at the age of 19, he headed for the Royal Academy in Berlin to begin his studies in the world of international art. From about 1890 until 1916, Coburn resided in Europe, where he enjoyed a lucrative career as an illustrator, his reputation having been established in 1897 with the highly successful illustrated publication of The Habitant by the Canadian poet W.H. DRUMMOND.

In addition to 4 other volumes of Drummond’s poetry, Coburn illustrated literature by such well-known authors as Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning. His later oils and etchings are bathed in a bright Canadian winter light in contrast to the heavy, sombre palette of his illustrations, which betray a European influence