Emily Carr
Encyclopedia
Emily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life. As she matured, the subject matter of her painting shifted from aboriginal themes to landscapes, and, in particular, forest scenes. As a writer, Carr was one of the earliest chroniclers of life in British Columbia. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a "Canadian icon".
, British Columbia
in 1871, the year British Columbia joined Canada
, Emily Carr was the second-youngest of six children born to English parents Richard and Emily Saunders Carr. The Carr home was on Birdcage Walk, (now Government Street) in the James Bay district of Victoria, a short distance from the legislative buildings (nicknamed the 'Birdcages') and the town itself.
The Carr children were raised on English tradition. Richard Carr, born in England, believed it was sensible to live in a Vancouver Island, a colony of Great Britain, where he could practice English customs and continue his British citizenship. The family home was made up in lavish English fashion, with high ceilings, ornate mouldings, and a Parlour
room. Richard and his wife imposed Christianity on their children, beginning Sundays with morning prayers, and ending them with readings from the Bible
. They mainly attended a Presbyterian
church, and Richard called on one child to recite the sermon
; Emily consistently had trouble reciting it. Her father encouraged Emily's artistic inclinations, but it was only in 1891, after her parents' deaths, that Carr pursued her art seriously. The nearest proper art school
was in San Francisco, California
, where Carr attended the San Francisco Art Institute
for two years (1890–1892) before returning to Victoria.
In 1898 Carr made the first of several sketching and painting trips to aboriginal villages, visiting Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island
, home to the Nuu-chah-nulth people, then commonly known to English speaking people as 'Nootka'. The following year Carr traveled to London
where she studied at the Westminster School of Art
. She traveled also to the artistic colony in Cornwall
, returning to British Columbia in 1905, where she took a teaching position in Vancouver
at the 'Ladies Art Club' that she held for no longer than a month — she was unpopular amongst her students due to her rude behaviour of smoking and cursing at them in class, and the students began to boycott
her class. Vancouver at that period was experiencing an economic boom, buoyed by the success of the lumber and fishing industries, and taking advantage of its position as the Pacific terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway
, and had roared ahead of the provincial capital, Victoria, in population and economic activity.
While on holiday to Alaska with her sister Alice in 1907, Carr again came into contact with indigenous peoples in remote villages and determined to use her art to document the sculptural and artistic legacy of the aboriginal people that she encountered. Still determined to further her knowledge of the rapidly evolving trends, in 1910 Carr returned to Europe, this time to Paris
to study at the Académie Colarossi
. In Montparnasse with her sister Alice, Emily Carr met Harry Gibb, a modernist painter. Upon viewing his work, she and her sister were shocked and intrigued by his use of distortion and vibrant colour. These techniques would shape and influence Emily Carr’s style of painting, making her adopt a colour palette of vibrancy over a pastel colour scheme, which she was used to. Influenced by the post-impressionists
and the fauvists, Carr returned to British Columbia and exhibited her French paintings.
In the summer of 1912 Carr again traveled north, to the Queen Charlotte Islands
and the Skeena River
, where she documented the art of the Haida, Gitxsan
and Tsimshian
. At Cumshewa, a Haida village on Moresby Island
, Carr painted a carved raven that she later turned into her iconic painting "Big Raven". "Tanoo", another painting inspired by work gathered on this trip, depicts three totems before house fronts at the village of the same name. On her return to the south Carr organized an exhibit of some of this work, and delivered a lengthy and detailed lecture about the aboriginal villages that she had visited which ended with her mission statement:
There had been some positive reaction to her work, even in the new 'French' style. However, according to her own recounting in Growing Pains, Carr's perception of the reaction in Vancouver to her work and new style was not positive, and Carr determined to give up teaching in Vancouver and return to her home town, Victoria, where several of her sisters still lived. It was during this period, about 15 years in duration, that Carr did little painting, running a boarding house known as the 'House of All Sorts', which would provide the source material for a book of the same name. Her circumstances straitened and her life in Victoria circumscribed, Carr's paintings of this period drew their inspiration from local scenes: the cliffs at Dallas Road, the trees in Beacon Hill Park
. Her own assessment of the period was that she had ceased to paint, which was not strictly true, although "[a]rt had ceased to be the primary drive of her life."
Over time Carr's work had come to the attention of several influential and supportive people, including Marius Barbeau
, prominent ethnologist at the National Museum in Ottawa
. Barbeau, in turn, persuaded Eric Brown, Director of Canada's National Gallery
to visit Carr in 1927. Brown invited Carr to exhibit as part of an exhibition on West Coast aboriginal art at the National Gallery. Carr sent 26 oil paintings east, along with samples of her pottery and rugs with indigenous designs. The exhibit, which included works by Edwin Holgate
and A.Y. Jackson traveled to Toronto and Montreal. The following spring Carr herself traveled east, timing her journey so that she would be able to meet members of the Group of Seven
, at that time Canada's most recognized modern painters. This encounter was to change the direction of Carr's artistic life, reinvigorating her sense of purpose and ending the terrible artistic isolation of the previous 15 years. Carr’s “distrust for institutional religion” pervades much of her art. She became influenced by Theosophic thought, like many artists of the time, and began to form new vision of God as nature. She led a spiritual way of life, rejecting the Church and the religious institution, and painted raw landscapes found in the Canadian wilderness, mystically animated by a greater spirit. Lawren Harris
became a particularly important support. "You are one of us," he told Carr, welcoming her into the ranks of Canada's leading modernists despite her own self-deprecating attitude. Carr was influenced not only by Harris' work, but also by his belief in theosophy
, which Carr struggled to reconcile with her own conception of God.
Carr continued throughout the late 1920s and 1930s with trips away from Victoria. Her last trip north was in the summer of 1928, when she made a trip to the Nass
and Skeena
Rivers, as well as to the Queen Charlottes. She travelled to Friendly Cove and the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, and then up to Lillooet
in 1933. Recognition of her work grew steadily, and she was exhibited in London, Paris, Washington and Amsterdam, as well as major Canadian cities.
In 1939 Carr suffered a serious heart-attack, and moved in with her sister Alice. Her focus shifted from her painting to her writing. With the assistance of her friend Ira Dilworth, principal of Victoria High School, Carr was able to see her first book, Klee Wyck, published in 1941. Carr was awarded the Governor-General's Award for non-fiction the following year for Klee Wyck. Carr died in Victoria on March 2, 1945, shortly before she was to have been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of British Columbia
.
Emily Carr died in the James Bay Inn in Victoria, British Columbia
had been mostly portraits and representational landscapes. Carr's main themes in her mature work were natives and nature: "native totem poles set in deep forest locations or sites of abandoned native villages" and, later, "the large rhythms of Western forests, driftwood-tossed beaches and expansive skies". She blended these two themes in ways uniquely her own. Her "qualities of painterly skill and vision [...] enabled her to give form to a Pacific mythos that was so carefully distilled in her imagination".
Her painting can be divided into several distinct phases: her early work, before her studies in Paris; her early paintings under the Fauvist influence of her time in Paris; a post-impressionist middle period before her encounter with the Group of Seven; and her later, formal period, under the post-cubist influences of Lawren Harris and American artist and friend, Mark Tobey
. She used charcoal and watercolour for her sketches. The greatest part of her mature work was oil on canvas or, when money was scarce, oil on paper.
She is also remembered for her writing, again largely about her native friends. In addition to Klee Wyck, Carr wrote The Book of Small (1942),The House of All Sorts (1944), and, published posthumously, Growing Pains (1946), Pause and The Heart of a Peacock (1953), and Hundreds and Thousands (1966). These books reveal her to be an accomplished writer. Though mostly autobiographical, they have been found to be unreliable as to facts and figures if not in terms of mood and intent.
Her life itself has made her a "Canadian icon", according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. As well as being "an artist of stunning originality and strength", she was an exceptionally late bloomer
, starting the work for which she is best known at the age of 57 (see Grandma Moses
). She was also a woman who succeeded against the odds, living in an artistically unadventurous society, thus making her "a darling of the women's movement" (see Georgia O'Keeffe
, whom she met in 1930 in New York
). Emily Carr brought the north to the south; the west to the east; glimpses of the ancient culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas to the most newly arrived Europeans on the continent.
In 1994, the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union
adopted the name Carr for a crater on Venus
. The Carr crater has an approximate diameter of 31.9 kilometers.
Many books have been published about her, including ones for children. Novelist Susan Vreeland
wrote "The Forest Lover" in 2004 based on events from Carr's life, using Emily Carr as the main character/protagonist and altering some characters and chronology for the purpose of pacing. Each part of the novel is introduced by a reproduction of an actual Carr painting.
Emily Carr Inlet, a sidewater of Chapple Inlet on the North Coast of British Columbia
, was named in her honour.
Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. They are now situated within the Canadian Province of British Columbia and the U.S...
. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life. As she matured, the subject matter of her painting shifted from aboriginal themes to landscapes, and, in particular, forest scenes. As a writer, Carr was one of the earliest chroniclers of life in British Columbia. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a "Canadian icon".
Biography
Born in VictoriaVictoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
in 1871, the year British Columbia joined Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Emily Carr was the second-youngest of six children born to English parents Richard and Emily Saunders Carr. The Carr home was on Birdcage Walk, (now Government Street) in the James Bay district of Victoria, a short distance from the legislative buildings (nicknamed the 'Birdcages') and the town itself.
The Carr children were raised on English tradition. Richard Carr, born in England, believed it was sensible to live in a Vancouver Island, a colony of Great Britain, where he could practice English customs and continue his British citizenship. The family home was made up in lavish English fashion, with high ceilings, ornate mouldings, and a Parlour
Parlour
Parlour , from the French word parloir, from parler , denotes an "audience chamber". In parts of the United Kingdom and the United States, parlours are common names for certain types of food service houses, restaurants or special service areas, such as tattoo parlors...
room. Richard and his wife imposed Christianity on their children, beginning Sundays with morning prayers, and ending them with readings from the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. They mainly attended a Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
church, and Richard called on one child to recite the sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
; Emily consistently had trouble reciting it. Her father encouraged Emily's artistic inclinations, but it was only in 1891, after her parents' deaths, that Carr pursued her art seriously. The nearest proper art school
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
was in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where Carr attended the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
for two years (1890–1892) before returning to Victoria.
In 1898 Carr made the first of several sketching and painting trips to aboriginal villages, visiting Ucluelet on the west coast of Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
, home to the Nuu-chah-nulth people, then commonly known to English speaking people as 'Nootka'. The following year Carr traveled to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
where she studied at the Westminster School of Art
Westminster School of Art
The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. It was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Architectural Museum.H. M. Bateman described it in 1903 as...
. She traveled also to the artistic colony in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, returning to British Columbia in 1905, where she took a teaching position in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
at the 'Ladies Art Club' that she held for no longer than a month — she was unpopular amongst her students due to her rude behaviour of smoking and cursing at them in class, and the students began to boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
her class. Vancouver at that period was experiencing an economic boom, buoyed by the success of the lumber and fishing industries, and taking advantage of its position as the Pacific terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
, and had roared ahead of the provincial capital, Victoria, in population and economic activity.
While on holiday to Alaska with her sister Alice in 1907, Carr again came into contact with indigenous peoples in remote villages and determined to use her art to document the sculptural and artistic legacy of the aboriginal people that she encountered. Still determined to further her knowledge of the rapidly evolving trends, in 1910 Carr returned to Europe, this time to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to study at the Académie Colarossi
Académie Colarossi
The Académie Colarossi is an art school founded by the Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi. First located on the Île de la Cité, it moved in the 1870s to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France....
. In Montparnasse with her sister Alice, Emily Carr met Harry Gibb, a modernist painter. Upon viewing his work, she and her sister were shocked and intrigued by his use of distortion and vibrant colour. These techniques would shape and influence Emily Carr’s style of painting, making her adopt a colour palette of vibrancy over a pastel colour scheme, which she was used to. Influenced by the post-impressionists
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Fry used the term when he organized the 1910 exhibition Manet and Post-Impressionism...
and the fauvists, Carr returned to British Columbia and exhibited her French paintings.
In the summer of 1912 Carr again traveled north, to the Queen Charlotte Islands
Queen Charlotte Islands
Haida Gwaii , formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Haida Gwaii consists of two main islands: Graham Island in the north, and Moresby Island in the south, along with approximately 150 smaller islands with a total landmass of...
and the Skeena River
Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada . The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the...
, where she documented the art of the Haida, Gitxsan
Gitxsan
Gitxsan are an indigenous people whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English...
and Tsimshian
Tsimshian
The Tsimshian are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Tsimshian translates to Inside the Skeena River. Their communities are in British Columbia and Alaska, around Terrace and Prince Rupert and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. There are approximately 10,000...
. At Cumshewa, a Haida village on Moresby Island
Moresby Island
Moresby Island is a large island that forms part of the Haida Gwaii archipelago in British Columbia, Canada, located at . Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site includes Moresby and other islands...
, Carr painted a carved raven that she later turned into her iconic painting "Big Raven". "Tanoo", another painting inspired by work gathered on this trip, depicts three totems before house fronts at the village of the same name. On her return to the south Carr organized an exhibit of some of this work, and delivered a lengthy and detailed lecture about the aboriginal villages that she had visited which ended with her mission statement:
I glory in our wonderful west and I hope to leave behind me some of the relics of its first primitive greatness. These things should be to us Canadians what the ancient Briton's relics are to the English. Only a few more years and they will be gone forever into silent nothingness and I would gather my collection together before they are forever past.
There had been some positive reaction to her work, even in the new 'French' style. However, according to her own recounting in Growing Pains, Carr's perception of the reaction in Vancouver to her work and new style was not positive, and Carr determined to give up teaching in Vancouver and return to her home town, Victoria, where several of her sisters still lived. It was during this period, about 15 years in duration, that Carr did little painting, running a boarding house known as the 'House of All Sorts', which would provide the source material for a book of the same name. Her circumstances straitened and her life in Victoria circumscribed, Carr's paintings of this period drew their inspiration from local scenes: the cliffs at Dallas Road, the trees in Beacon Hill Park
Beacon Hill Park
Beacon Hill Park is a 75 ha park located along the shore of Juan de Fuca Strait in Victoria, British Columbia. The park is popular both with tourists and locals, and contains a number of amenities including woodland and shoreline trails, two playgrounds, a waterpark, playing fields, a petting...
. Her own assessment of the period was that she had ceased to paint, which was not strictly true, although "[a]rt had ceased to be the primary drive of her life."
Over time Carr's work had come to the attention of several influential and supportive people, including Marius Barbeau
Marius Barbeau
Charles Marius Barbeau, , also known as C. Marius Barbeau, or more commonly simply Marius Barbeau, was a Canadian ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology...
, prominent ethnologist at the National Museum in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
. Barbeau, in turn, persuaded Eric Brown, Director of Canada's National Gallery
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
to visit Carr in 1927. Brown invited Carr to exhibit as part of an exhibition on West Coast aboriginal art at the National Gallery. Carr sent 26 oil paintings east, along with samples of her pottery and rugs with indigenous designs. The exhibit, which included works by Edwin Holgate
Edwin Holgate
Edwin Holgate , was a Canadian artist, painter and engraver. Holgate played a major role in Montreal's art community, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where he both studied and taught...
and A.Y. Jackson traveled to Toronto and Montreal. The following spring Carr herself traveled east, timing her journey so that she would be able to meet members of the Group of Seven
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
, at that time Canada's most recognized modern painters. This encounter was to change the direction of Carr's artistic life, reinvigorating her sense of purpose and ending the terrible artistic isolation of the previous 15 years. Carr’s “distrust for institutional religion” pervades much of her art. She became influenced by Theosophic thought, like many artists of the time, and began to form new vision of God as nature. She led a spiritual way of life, rejecting the Church and the religious institution, and painted raw landscapes found in the Canadian wilderness, mystically animated by a greater spirit. Lawren Harris
Lawren Harris
Lawren Stewart Harris, CC was a Canadian painter. He was born in Brantford, Ontario and is best known as a member the Group of Seven who pioneered a distinctly Canadian painting style in the early twentieth century. A. Y. Jackson has been quoted as saying that Harris provided the stimulus for the...
became a particularly important support. "You are one of us," he told Carr, welcoming her into the ranks of Canada's leading modernists despite her own self-deprecating attitude. Carr was influenced not only by Harris' work, but also by his belief in theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
, which Carr struggled to reconcile with her own conception of God.
Carr continued throughout the late 1920s and 1930s with trips away from Victoria. Her last trip north was in the summer of 1928, when she made a trip to the Nass
Nass River
The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance...
and Skeena
Skeena River
The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada . The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the...
Rivers, as well as to the Queen Charlottes. She travelled to Friendly Cove and the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, and then up to Lillooet
Lillooet
Lillooet may refer to:*Lillooet, a town in the Fraser Canyon in British Columbia.*the St'at'imc people, also known as the Lillooet people*The Lillooet language, also known under the names of its dialects St'at'imcets and Ucwalmícwts...
in 1933. Recognition of her work grew steadily, and she was exhibited in London, Paris, Washington and Amsterdam, as well as major Canadian cities.
In 1939 Carr suffered a serious heart-attack, and moved in with her sister Alice. Her focus shifted from her painting to her writing. With the assistance of her friend Ira Dilworth, principal of Victoria High School, Carr was able to see her first book, Klee Wyck, published in 1941. Carr was awarded the Governor-General's Award for non-fiction the following year for Klee Wyck. Carr died in Victoria on March 2, 1945, shortly before she was to have been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
.
Emily Carr died in the James Bay Inn in Victoria, British Columbia
Work
Carr is remembered primarily for her painting. She was one of the first artists to attempt to capture the spirit of Canada in a modern style. Previously, Canadian paintingCanadian art
Canadian art refers to the visual as well as plastic arts originating from the geographical area of contemporary Canada...
had been mostly portraits and representational landscapes. Carr's main themes in her mature work were natives and nature: "native totem poles set in deep forest locations or sites of abandoned native villages" and, later, "the large rhythms of Western forests, driftwood-tossed beaches and expansive skies". She blended these two themes in ways uniquely her own. Her "qualities of painterly skill and vision [...] enabled her to give form to a Pacific mythos that was so carefully distilled in her imagination".
Her painting can be divided into several distinct phases: her early work, before her studies in Paris; her early paintings under the Fauvist influence of her time in Paris; a post-impressionist middle period before her encounter with the Group of Seven; and her later, formal period, under the post-cubist influences of Lawren Harris and American artist and friend, Mark Tobey
Mark Tobey
Mark George Tobey was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the...
. She used charcoal and watercolour for her sketches. The greatest part of her mature work was oil on canvas or, when money was scarce, oil on paper.
She is also remembered for her writing, again largely about her native friends. In addition to Klee Wyck, Carr wrote The Book of Small (1942),The House of All Sorts (1944), and, published posthumously, Growing Pains (1946), Pause and The Heart of a Peacock (1953), and Hundreds and Thousands (1966). These books reveal her to be an accomplished writer. Though mostly autobiographical, they have been found to be unreliable as to facts and figures if not in terms of mood and intent.
Her life itself has made her a "Canadian icon", according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. As well as being "an artist of stunning originality and strength", she was an exceptionally late bloomer
Late bloomer
A late bloomer is a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual. The term is used metaphorically to describe a child or adolescent who develops more slowly than others in their age group, but eventually catches up and in some cases overtakes their peers, or...
, starting the work for which she is best known at the age of 57 (see Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses
Anna Mary Robertson Moses , better known as "Grandma Moses", was a renowned American folk artist. She is often cited as an example of an individual successfully beginning a career in the arts at an advanced age. Although her family and friends called her either "Mother Moses" or "Grandma Moses,"...
). She was also a woman who succeeded against the odds, living in an artistically unadventurous society, thus making her "a darling of the women's movement" (see Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
, whom she met in 1930 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
). Emily Carr brought the north to the south; the west to the east; glimpses of the ancient culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas to the most newly arrived Europeans on the continent.
Recognition
Institutions named after Carr include:- Emily Carr HouseEmily Carr HouseEmily Carr House is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Victoria, British Columbia. It was the childhood home of Canadian painter Emily Carr, and had a lasting impression on her paintings and writings.-Early history:...
in Victoria, British ColumbiaVictoria, British ColumbiaVictoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian... - Emily Carr University of Art and Design in VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... - Emily Carr Public Library in Victoria, British ColumbiaVictoria, British ColumbiaVictoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...
- Emily Carr Secondary SchoolEmily Carr Secondary SchoolEmily Carr Secondary School is a high school in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada, part of the city of Vaughan. It is administered by the York Region District School Board. Most students from this high school come from the school near the area...
in Woodbridge, OntarioWoodbridge, OntarioWoodbridge is a large suburban community in the City of Vaughan, just north of Toronto in Southern Ontario. It was once an independent town before being amalgamated with nearby communities to form the city in 1971. Its traditional downtown core is the Woodbridge Ave... - Emily Carr Elementary SchoolEmily Carr Elementary SchoolEmily Carr Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia, is an elementary school. It was named after prominent British Columbian artist Emily Carr....
in VancouverVancouverVancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British ColumbiaBritish ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858... - Emily Carr Middle School in OttawaOttawaOttawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa.... - Emily Carr public schools in LondonLondon, OntarioLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Oakville, OntarioOakville, OntarioOakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...
In 1994, the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
adopted the name Carr for a crater on Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
. The Carr crater has an approximate diameter of 31.9 kilometers.
Many books have been published about her, including ones for children. Novelist Susan Vreeland
Susan Vreeland
Susan Vreeland is an American authoress. Several of her books deal with the relationship between art and fiction. The Passion of Artemisia is a fictionalised investigation of some aspects of the life of Artemisia Gentileschi.- Works :...
wrote "The Forest Lover" in 2004 based on events from Carr's life, using Emily Carr as the main character/protagonist and altering some characters and chronology for the purpose of pacing. Each part of the novel is introduced by a reproduction of an actual Carr painting.
Emily Carr Inlet, a sidewater of Chapple Inlet on the North Coast of British Columbia
British Columbia Coast
The British Columbia Coast or BC Coast is Canada's western continental coastline on the Pacific Ocean. The usage is synonymous with the term West Coast of Canada....
, was named in her honour.
Further reading
- Marchessault, Jovette. (1992). The Magnificent Voyage of Emily Carr. Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks. ISBN 978-0-88922-314-1.
External links
- Emily Carr House
- Detailed Biography of Emily Carr
- The full text of some of Emily Carr's books is available from Project Gutenberg of Australia.
- A virtual exhibit on the life of Emily Carr
- Several dozen Emily Carr artworks are viewable through the collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
- National Film Board of Canada short film for kids on Emily Carr
- Emily Carr interactive exhibit and online database
- Canadian 'History Minute' spot on Emily Carr
- Gallery of Carr's paintings