Alex Colville was a Canadian artist born in 1920 in Toronto, Ontario. He is known for his realistic paintings that often depict ordinary scenes. Some of his most famous works include Horse & Train, which was inspired by a poem and shows a horse facing a train; Hound in Field, which looks so realistic it could be mistaken for a photograph; and To Prince Edward Island, which makes the viewer consider what the subject is looking at through binoculars. Critics have described Colville's style as kitschy and naive, but his realistic technique was influenced by his experience as a soldier in World War II.