Alex Colville, “Horse and Train”, 1954, Casein Tempera on Hardboard, 41.2 x 54.2 cm, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada

Alex Colville is a Canadian painter from the province of New Brunswick. Colville was born in Toronto, As a child Colville used to construct model planes and trains. Colville grew up around horses because his father and grandfather owned them. Horse and Train would be personal to him because of his past experience with horses and technology. In 1938, Colville began attending Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick and received his bachelor for fine arts in 1942. Colville was involved in the Second World War; he became a war artist in the Canadian military.

Colville first sketched “Horse and Train” on a sheet of paper, on March 16, 1954. The original title of the painting was “A Dark Horse against an Armoured Train.” The setting of the picture “Horse and Train” is located at Aulac just outside of Sackville in the province of New Brunswick, where the elevated tracks crosses the Tantramar Marshes.

The “Horse and Train” was inspired by the poem, “Dedication to Mary Campbell,” published in 1949 by South African writer Roy Campbell. The poem includes the lines: “Against a regiment I oppose a brain, and a dark horse against an armoured train.”