Robert Elmer Lougheed was a Canadian painter known for his depictions of horses, working animals, and rural North American scenes. Born in Massey, Ontario, he studied at the Ontario College of Art, the Art Students League of New York, and the Grand Central School of Art. Lougheed worked as a commercial illustrator in New York while pursuing a career as a fine artist, exhibiting widely and earning recognition for his draftsmanship and ability to capture equine form.

Cooling Off, Near Valleyfield, Quebec (c. 1950) is an oil on canvas measuring 20 x 26 inches, signed lower left. The work is a rural scene where a farmer stands beside two of harnessed horses drinking from a pond, while a small dog wades in the water. Lougheed’s paintings often drew on direct observation of rural life in Canada and the United States, combining field sketches with studio work to produce scenes of working farms, open landscapes, and horses.