CONTENTdm
British Columbia Historical Books Collection
National Gallery of Canada
Art Gallery of Toronto
Dilworth, Ira, 1894-1962
Harris, Lawren, 1885-1970
Carr, Emily, 1871-1945
"Chronology [of her life]: p.61-62. Exhibitions in her lifetime: p.63-64. Partial contents: Emily Carr: a biographical sketch, by Ira Dilworth. - The paintings and drawings of Emily Carr, by Lawren Harris."-- Edwards, M. H., Lort, J. C. R., & Carmichael, W. J. (1975). A bibliography of British Columbia: Years of growth, 1900-1950. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, p. 65.
64 pages : frontispiece (colour), illustrations ; 26 cm
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The Art of EmUy Cart [By mm\ M&son in the Ottawa Cittttni EMILY CARR died only a few months ago. Today she takes her place as one of the truly great figures in the world Of contemporary art, and perhaps as the most powerful woman painter of this century, anywhere. This courageous, Stubborn and austere woman, who could observe humanity with keen insight and at times a delight. ml s«nse of humor (one should read her books), created on canvas a world of her own, a powerful and Overwhelming world, made of sombre and ghost-like forms.. . '*^|j$&?k Emily Carr recreated British Columbia forests and totem poles and Pacific Coast Indians into tremendous abstractions, true abstractions not usually asS^ciateii with a precious (sometimes obscure) type of art exhibited today. Like all true artists She had to feel tu&t w*y for many years. Her first attempts Were mostly illustrative or impressionistic oils and watereolors. This great Canadian could be classi* fied as a regionalist if subject matter only is considered, but she was before any- thing elSS a painter, tremendously interested in the development of painting M new discoveries and visions. So this re* giorialist beii&e the most universal of our painters bemuse she understood the first and most important law of all good art, which is to interpret one's own visions and to create good works. Emily Carr Will live not so much because she painted a section of the Cana- dian scene, but because she painted Significant pictures in terms of paint/^W [By Thomas Daly in Toronto Saturday Night] j EMILY carr'S books never quite fit into the accustomed moulds of essays, or short stories, or personal memoirs. This seems to have bothered seme people i who choose their reading fare from habit, and seem suspicious of new flavors and unorthodox dishes, , j I have even heard it argued that, Emily Carr's writing is "very nice, but I you can't call it great, because she never j seems to be able to handle anything longer than a few pages* The same might be said I of Walt Whitman-or The fact is, of course, that neither Aesop nor Whitman nor Emily Carr was aiming at lengthy Theh> qualities are of another sort. In Emily Carr's case, these qualities are best understood by comparing her writing with her pjfoting. She h$Fteli referred to her painting and Writing as "twins." She used words as boldly and deftly as strokes of paint. Her writings are in the form Of SOn- cise, penetrating sketches, each complete in itself and neatly framed in its own assign. Heading one of her books is like rambling through a room in an art gallery. Each contains a Collection of separate and detached pictures, and we are not impelled hurriedly from' one to another by Considerations of suspense or 'jfldt or chronology. Instead, we are at liberty to savor each picture Individually, and go back to it again as an entity in itself when we have seen the entire show. EMILY CARR J 35 — INDIAN CHURCH Frontispiece EMILY CARR HER PAINTINGS AND SKETCHES PUBLISHED FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA AND THE ART GALLERY OF TORONTO BY THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS TORONTO OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMEN HOUSE, TORONTO London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, New York, Melbourne, Capetown, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1945 by OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINTED IN CANADA BY ROUS & MANN PRESS LIMITED, TORONTO .CONTENTS Introduction ........ Page 7 Emily Carr, Biographical Sketch - by Ira Dilworth ... 9 The Paintings and Drawings of Emily Carr - by Lawren Harris . 20 Illustrations . . . . . . . . . 29 Catalogue of the Exhibition ....... 55 Chronology ......... 61 Exhibitions in Her Lifetime and Public Collections . . . 63 BOOKS BY EMILY CARR KLEE WYCK THE BOOK OF SMALL THE HOUSE OF ALL SORTS INTRODUCTION SINCE 1927, when her painting was first exhibited in the east, the Canadian people have been to some degree aware of Emily Carr. They have become acquainted with her individuality and the quality of her perception, through her paintings and through her books — "Klee Wyck", "The Book of Small", and "The House of All Sorts". This year Emily Carr died. The National Gallery of Canada and The Art Gallery of Toronto in presenting this exhibition do so in order to show not only the already familiar quality of her vision, but also the development of that vision, and the presence of it in her most intimate impressions as well as in her greatest conceptions. Her development is implied through the arrangement of the exhibition according to the successive trends of her work, the constancy of her awareness is made apparent through representative selections from works in every medium, canvases, water-colours, oil sketches, charcoal drawings, and small brush drawings. Thus the visitor to the exhibition will not find it to be an exhaustive study of Emily Carr, nor yet a series of disconnected impressions, but rather a self-portrait revealing the most marked characteristic of her personality as an artist, the continuous effort to achieve expression of themes she felt so deeply. That this may be more easily understood as being a conscious effort, two of Miss Carr's most intimate friends, Ira Dilworth and Lawren Harris, have written the articles on her life and the development of her painting which form the body of this catalogue. 7 The catalogue is intended to be more than a guide to the exhibition, however. Many will see only reduced versions of the exhibition, many will be unable to see it at all. Therefore, through the choice and arrangement of the illustrations, an attempt has been made to give the theme of the exhibition a permanent form which will be accessible to everyone. The National Gallery of Canada and The Art Gallery of Toronto are particularly indebted to the Trustees of the Emily Carr Trust, Mr. Ira Dilworth and Mr. Lawren Harris, for their great assistance in the preparation of the exhibition, for their articles appearing in the catalogue, and for a large number of paintings and drawings from the Emily Carr Trust Collection. They also wish to acknowledge the generosity of many others who have helped through the loan of their pictures or through valuable information and advice. EMILY CARR BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH — By IRA DILWORTH ON the night of December 12, 1927, looking back through more than a half-century of her life, Emily Carr wrote in her "Journal" (she was at the time visiting in Toronto), "Fifty-six years ago to-night there was a big storm out West and deep snow. My dear little Mother wrestled bravely and I was born—and the storm has never quite lulled in my life. I've always been tossing and wrestling and buffeting it." Richard Carr, Emily's father, was a man of action with a love of adventure, plenty of courage and initiative. Born in England in 1818, he left home at the age of 18. After extensive travel on the continent, he came to the eastern United States in 1837. His first visit to Canada was made in that same year, when he spent a brief time in Montreal. After several years in the United States, during which period he worked in sailing ships, was employed in farm work and tried his hand at fishing in the Great Lakes, he returned to England. His stay there, however, was short and he was soon back again in America. This time he came to the West, travelled and worked in Central America and Mexico and finally came on up the coast to California which he found busy with the early gold rush. There he set up as a merchant in Alviso, a venture which proved highly successful. He returned to England for a brief visit and was married there in January, 1855. After his marriage, Mr. Carr returned to California where he resumed his business at Alviso. There his first two daughters were born, Edith and Clara. The Carrs remained in California for a little more than five years and then went back to England with the intention of remaining there permanently. Two sons were born to them but both died in infancy. The father found the call of the New World too strong for him. He wrote in his diary in 1863, "I have got tired of living here doing nothing, do not like the climate. Everything seems different to what I expected but the change is in me. Twenty-five years absence makes things appear different even in one's own native country. I have decided on returning to California. 9 My children will have a much brighter prospect before them in that or some other newly settled country. It is probable we shall go from California to Vancouver's Island. I prefer settling in a British settlement." Three months later he was on his way to the United States. After only a brief visit in California he came on up the Pacific coast to Victoria, where he arrived on July 5, 1863. He quickly established himself in the young colonial settlement, bought an acreage and built a fine, large house into which he moved with his family on April 1, 1864. The old house still stands on Government Street in Victoria. In that city Richard Carr spent the remainder of his life. He became a highly successful wholesale merchant and importer and amassed a considerable estate. In Victoria his five youngest children were born, Thomas who died when only a few months old, Elizabeth, Alice, Emily and Richard. The latter died at the age of 24. Richard Carr senior died in 1888. His wife had pre-deceased him by two years. She is remembered by all who knew her as a devout woman of gentle disposition, with ready sympathy and sensitive humour. She was devoted to her large family who idolized her. Emily Carr (named for her mother) was born in December 13, 1871. From her earliest years she was a bit of a rebel. She was at odds with her family and later with the community in which she was to spend by far the largest part of her life. She was educated in the Public and High Schools of Victoria. There are no records to indicate that she was in any way distinguished in her studies. She herself always said she hated school and was a poor pupil.—"When I moved up a grade the new teacher would say, ?Ah, another good Carr!', but was disappointed." Emily Carr early showed ability in drawing. This was noted and encouraged by her father who arranged for her to have private drawing lessons. The first great sorrow of Emily's life came with her mother's death. When, two years later, she lost her father, she felt herself so much at variance with the prevailing atmosphere of her home that she asked and secured permission from her guardian to go to San Francisco to study art. Consequently, at the age of 18, we find her at the old San Francisco School of Art which, during her time there, moved into more spacious and elegant quarters and became the Mark Hopkins School of Art. There the founda- 10 r tions of the artist's later work were laid. She returned to Victoria about 1895 and set up a studio in the loft of the old barn on the Carr estate and began to teach. Writing in her still unpublished "Autobiography" about her work at this time, Emily says, "The type of work which I brought back from San Francisco was humdrum and unemotional—objects honestly portrayed, nothing more. As yet I had not considered what was underneath surfaces nor had I considered the inside of myself. I was like a child printing alphabet letters. I had not begun to make words." She was apparently very successful in her work of teaching and was able to save enough money to make her next venture—a trip to England— possible. It is important to note that in the late 90's Emily made her first visit to the West Coast Indian Villages, going up as a summer visitor to the Mission School at Ucluelet. In 1899 Emily went to England to follow up her art studies. She attended classes at the Westminster School of Art. She went on several sketching trips into the English countryside, notably to St. Ives, a part of the country which, because of its ruggedness and the simplicity of the fisherfolk's lives, made a strong appeal to her. The sojourn in England was not entirely happy. She saw many interesting places and witnessed some memorable events, for instance the funeral of Queen Victoria, of which she has left an amusing account, and the great London crowds at the Coronation of King Edward. A happy interlude was provided by the visit in the summer of 1901 of her favourite sister, Alice. But Emily was not really interested in historical monuments, nor in the pageantry of English city life. Tradition and convention irked her. She found London too crowded with people. There was too little space, too little freedom for her vigorous Canadian temperament. By June, 1902, she had become so ill that her sister Lizzie went to England to bring her home. The visit was not a success. Emily was seriously ill, but she refused to abandon the object for which she had made her journey abroad. After some months in England, Lizzie returned to Victoria alone, leaving Emily in a sanatorium in Suffolk. There she spent over a year. She has left an amusing and, at times, pathetic account of her life there with lively sketches of the characters she met in the hospital. She found occasional comfort in the beauty of the countryside when her health permitted her 11 to go out-of-doors and in the lovely English song-birds. It was on the whole a bitter and discouraging time for her: she felt that her work had been arrested and that the purpose of her trip had failed of realization. On October 14, 1904, Emily returned to Victoria, having spent eight weeks with friends in the Cariboo en route. Her joy at being back in Canada was tremendous. Once again she felt she had space and freedom to breathe and live. Immediately after her return from England she resumed her art teaching and carried it on very successfully for the next six years both in Victoria and in Vancouver. During this period she made further trips to West Coast Indian villages and became keenly interested in the life of the people. It was now too that she came to know the North Vancouver Indians, particularly Sophie, who came to be one of her closest and most dearly loved friends. Through these contacts Emily conceived a deep respect for the native art and' a sincere love of the Indians themselves. She made many sketches in their villages, merely "nibbling at the silhouetted edges", to quote her own expression, but actually she was storing up much material for use later in her painting and writing. In 1905 a Victoria periodical, "The Week", carried a fairly long article on Emily Carr, perhaps the first printed account of the artist and her work. The author refers to her recently completed studies in England, to her teaching and to her interest in Indian subjects. He describes some of the sketches which he saw when he visited her in her studio in Fort Street. In the same year Emily undertook what may seem a surprising venture. She contributed a number of pen and ink cartoons to "The Week". This series begins in February and continues through twelve or thirteen issues. The cartoons reveal a keen grasp of current politics, municipal, provincial and federal. They are humorous and clever and provide clear evidence of the versatility of interest and ability of this amazing young woman. The same periodical published several poems by her, not much better than doggerel, judged by literary standards, but always humorous and sometimes ironical in spirit. But the young artist quickly became dissatisfied with her present mastery of the technique of her art, keenly aware of her limitations. She burned with a desire to express adequately what she felt about the life and landscape of 12 British Columbia. Artists from the Old Country, bewildered by the vastness and untamed quality of Western Canadian scenery, said it was unpaintable. But was it? Perhaps an exploration of the newer methods of painting which were beginning to be so much talked of would give her the mastery she desired. Why not go to France and see? These were the questions which gave her no rest until she set out with Alice for Paris in July, 1910. The travellers spent a week in Quebec and a few days in London, then hurried on to France. Alice settled down in Paris delighted with the beauty and historical richness of the city. Emily busied herself at once with her studies, working feverishly to get as much as possible out of her stay which, for financial reasons, was to be brief. She studied for a short time at the Academie Colarossi but she has left little reference to her work there. Much more memorable was her association with John Fergusson, Harry Gibbs, and an Australian water-colourist, a woman, whose name she could never recall. Harry Gibbs made the deepest impression of the three. He had a studio in Paris. There Emily met his wife, an ardent modernist, and many students who were imbued with boundless enthusiasm for the new art. She later went on several sketching trips with Gibbs and his wife, trips which took them into some of the most interesting parts of Brittany. The stay in France was marred somewhat by a recurrence of Emily's illness. On the advice of her physician she and Alice went to Sweden for two months. There she took hot salt baths and was soon much stronger. Shortly after their return to Paris, Alice set out for home. Emily remained, happily sketching at St. Efnam—she later went to Concarneau. When Emily returned to Victoria on November 11, 1911 she was filled with enthusiasm for what she had seen in France. She says in her "Autobiography",—"I came home from France stronger in body, in mind and in work than I had returned from England. My seeing had broadened. I was better equipped for teaching and study." She was now inspired to venture upon her own work in a new spirit, to put into effect the "new way of seeing" that she had met among the artists in Paris. But her enthusiasm met with rebuffs, scorn and even ridicule. She arranged exhibitions of her latest work in Victoria and Vancouver. Her new painting was disparaged by both her family and those who had encouraged her earlier work. She tried teaching both in 13 Victoria and Vancouver, but was soon discouraged by the unsympathetic attitude which she met on all sides. Now began the bitterest period of her life. In 1913 she decided to give up teaching and build in Victoria an apartment house, hoping that she would be able to make sufficient revenue from the rental of suites to support herself in her work as an artist and thus provide an opportunity for the experimentation that she felt she must undertake. In June of that year the house was ready and Emily moved into her fine studio flat. That house was to be a heavy, at times almost intolerable, burden for more than twenty years. A slump in Victoria real estate values and, later, the war, reduced the expected revenue and made it necessary for Emily to devote much more of her time and attention to the care of apartments, the firing of furnaces and the meeting of tenants' whims than she had anticipated. Tenants became an hourly source of vexation and irritation to her. Her painting was for years almost wholly neglected. The misery of this period she has described in great detail in her latest book, "The House of All Sorts". In an attempt to eke out a living Miss Carr undertook the making of hooked rugs and pottery. In this work she used Indian designs. Some of her pottery has a very unusual beauty. She found relief during this time chiefly in two ways—the raising of bobtail sheep dogs and her summer trips into the Indian country and, later, into the deep forest of the B.C. Coast and Vancouver Island. The bobtails, of which she raised and sold some three hundred, gave her real joy and were at the same time a source of revenue. From earliest childhood she had had a passionate affection for animals and birds. Throughout her life she surrounded herself with pets—chipmunks, parrots, ring doves, canaries, Australian love birds, cats, a white rat and a Javanese monkey. In these creatures she found a foil to the life and people around her. In their quiet acceptance of life and in their devotion she discovered great comfort. During many summers Emily went into some of the most inaccessible Indian villages—along the Skeena River, on the Queen Charlotte Islands and on the rough and often stormy coast of the mainland. There she sketched and assembled material for some of her most important canvases. The year 1927 was for Miss Carr her annus mirabilis. In it her work received its first real recognition. The story is a romantic one. Marius 14 Barbeau, travelling among the Indians of northern British Columbia in earlier years, had encountered stories of the strange artist woman who visited their villages. He saw some of her work in their houses. Interested, he called to see Emily in Victoria and later told Eric Brown, then Director of the National Gallery in Ottawa, about her. Mr. and Mrs. Brown visited Emily in her studio in Victoria during the summer of 1927. As a result an exhibition of West Coast art was arranged to which Emily was invited to send some of her paintings, hooked rugs and pottery. The catalogue of the exhibition lists twenty-six of her pictures which were exhibited on that occasion of which the National Gallery purchased three at the close of the exhibition. This exhibition was a great stimulus to her but perhaps even more important still was the fact that Eric Brown made arrangements for her to go east for the show. This trip proved to be a real turning point in her career. She has left a long account of it in a journal kept during the latter part of 1927. The most important aspect of the journey was the contacts that she was able to make with Eastern artists, particularly with the members of the Canadian Group of Seven whom she met and whose work she saw in Toronto. On November 17th, she wrote in her Diary, "Oh, God, what have I seen, where have I been? Something has spoken to the very soul of me, wonderful, mighty, not of this world. Chords way down in my being have been touched, dumb notes have struck chords of wonderful tone, something has called out of somewhere, something in me is trying to answer. It is surging through my whole being. The wonder of it all, like a great river rushing on, dark and turbulent and rushing and irresistible and carrying me away on its wild swirl! . . . Oh, these men, this Group of Seven! What have they created? A world stripped of earthiness, shorn of fretting details, purged, purified." Emily returned to Victoria fired with new courage and zeal for her work. Never again was the loneliness of her situation in the West nor the misery of the apartment house with its tenants and problems to succeed in completely defeating her. She had formed contacts through which were to pass impulses rich in power to the end of her life. She began to paint steadily again and to take annual sketching trips into the woods. From now on we find a gradual recognition of her work. In 1930 she held her first one- man show in the West—in Victoria. 15 The year 1933 was memorable, too, because in it Emily purchased her van. This was a strange vehicle—in reality a large trailer which she had fitted up with a bed for herself, an oil stove—"little smelly", as she called it—cooking utensils, a book shelf, boxes for two or three dogs, accommodation for Woo, the monkey, for some favourite birds and for Susie, the white rat. In it she went into lonely forest places where she wanted to paint. Her first visit was to the river flats at Goldstream a short distance outside Victoria. There she was overwhelmed by the enormous majesty of a great stand of cedar trees. In successive years she made many such trips to various places and spent some of the happiest days of her life, painting with great rapidity all day and, at night, closed up in the solitude of the van reading Walt Whitman and writing. During these years her preoccupation with writing increased steadily. She was conscious of the value of "wording" her experiences as a means of clarifying them in preparation for painting. She was not, at any rate at first, conscious of any literary ambition in this writing. In 1936, Emily gave up the twenty-three-year struggle with the "House of all Sorts". With great relief she exchanged it for a smaller house, rentable and therefore capable of producing revenue. She went herself to live in a very small but compact and comfortable cottage in Beckley Street only a few blocks away from Alice's cottage and the old Carr house. Here she wrote and painted. It was here among her pets and with her canvases crowded into racks that she received an increasing number of visitors. Eric Newton of the "Manchester Guardian" visited her there, as did Lady Tweedsmuir. She was happy in her work in Beckley Street and yet it was there that the heart disease which was later to prove fatal made its first recognizable onslaughts. In 1937 she spent a month in hospital and realized that the impetuous pace of her life must be slowed down. This was at first a bitter realization. From now on to the end she was of necessity forced to work more quietly. She was not able to go so far afield as formerly, nor into such rough country. This inevitably turned her attention to her writing, with rich results. It must be noted, however, that she continued to go on limited sketching trips until 1942 and that she painted right up to within a few weeks of her death. In 1939 she suffered another serious heart attack and, in 1940, a slight stroke. Following this she abandoned her house in Beckley Street and 16 went to share Alice's cottage in St. Andrews Street. Here, in a self-contained apartment, with an excellent studio at her disposal, Emily lived the remainder of her life. Alice's cottage is built on the very spot where the young "Small" had watched, for the first time and with such close attention, the processes of life moving around her in the old cow yard behind the old house where she was born. In 1941, the world at large learned for the first time of Emily Carr, the author. In that year there appeared "Klee Wyck", a collection of sketches of Indian life written in so sensitive, rich and vivid a prose that the volume was greeted at once as a classic. Behind the easy simplicity and dignity of that style lay years of patient work, practising her skill in the use of words with as great care and discrimination as she had devoted to her painting. In the summer of 1942 Emily undertook her last sketching trip. Disobeying the doctor's orders she went out into the great woods at Mount Douglas a few miles distant from Victoria. She was compelled to go, feeling that the forest had something more to say to her. With the same determination that had always characterized her she held that, if death was to come, she would prefer that he found her busy. To paraphrase a favourite passage, she would have hated that death should bandage her eyes and bid her creep past. At Mount Douglas the old fever of creation came upon her again. In eight days she completed fifteen large oil sketches on paper and a number of smaller studies. Hardly one of these was altered or added to later in the studio. The inevitable result of this great physical and mental effort was a very severe heart seizure. She went direct to the hospital and for weeks her life was despaired of. Throughout 1943 and 1944 although almost continuously confined to bed, she continued to work, writing a good deal and painting a little. Towards the end of 1944 "The House of All Sorts" was completed and published. During the early months of 1945 she worked on some of her old oil-on- paper sketches, preparing them for an exhibition which was to have been held in Vancouver in April. Having completed some thirty-five of these, mounted them on "three-ply", framed them, prepared lists of them and arranged for their shipment, Emily felt suddenly tired. She packed up her typewriter and some writing materials and went to a nursing home to rest. There, less than a week later, on March 2nd, death suddenly came to her. 17 She was buried on March 5th in the family plot at Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria. Her funeral was attended by a few old and valued friends, among them Lawren Harris, her Victoria friend, Willie Newcombe, and her physician, Dr. Baillie. During her lifetime Emily enjoyed some great and useful friendships. Among those who helped her with her painting through their understanding and practical support were Eric Brown, Marius Barbeau and the members of the Canadian Group of Seven, particularly Lawren Harris. In Vancouver and Victoria, despite the general apathy shown towards her work, she had a few loyal friends who, at various times, encouraged her in her artistic struggle. During the last years of her life many honours came to her. In 1940 she was awarded the Bronze Medal of the International Business Machines Corporation (honorary award) "for a notable contribution to the art of the world". In 1941 "Klee Wyck" was awarded the Governor-General's Gold Medal in the field of general literature in Canada. On her 70th birthday in that same year a reception was held in Victoria at which representatives of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Provincial Government, the cities of Victoria and Oak Bay and many organizations, federal, provincial and municipal, the Canadian Press and many clubs paid their respects to her as a most distinguished citizen. She was a member of several art associations and was an Honorary Member of the Victoria Branch of the University Women's Club. Before her death, arrangements had been completed by the Senate of the University of British Columbia to confer upon her at the 1945 Spring Convocation the Degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa). A few years before her death, Emily established a permanent collection of her paintings and sketches. It contained over sixty of her finest works. It was placed in trust as a gift to the Province of British Columbia with the direction that it was eventually to be housed in Vancouver. Further evidence of her generosity and interest in Canadian art was revealed in the terms of her Will. All works of art unsold at the time of her death were left in a special trust. Funds from their sale are to be used for the encouragement of art and artists in her beloved Province of British Columbia. It is not within the province of this sketch to make any appraisal of Emily Carr's work, but a brief statement may be permitted and pardoned. Hers 18 was a peculiarly full life. She set herself the task of expressing what she had felt and seen and thought in her years in this country. The volume and variety of her work are staggering. Never was there a truer, simpler or more sincere Canadian. It is impossible to think of her work as finished —it goes on. It is equally impossible to estimate the influence that it will exert. She herself summed the situation up in her inimitable fashion. When asked in 1941 to give some of the outstanding events of her life, she wrote in part, "Outstanding events!—work and more work! The most outstanding seems to me the buying of an old caravan trailer which I had towed to out-of-the-way corners and where I sat self-contained with dogs, monk and work—Walt Whitman and others on the shelf—writing in the long, dark evenings after painting,—loving everything terrifically. In later years my work had some praise and some successes, but the outstanding event to me was the doing which I am still at. Don't pickle me away as a ?done'." 19 THE PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS OF EMILY CARR By LAWREN HARRIS THE work of Emily Carr and the circumstances in which it was achieved are unique in Canada. Here was a creative artist painting and sketching throughout most of her life among a people who not only failed to encourage her in her work but who opposed it. For fifteen of her most vigorous years she ran a rooming house and bred and sold hundreds of English sheep dogs in order to earn a living. Fifty people attended her funeral and her physician remarked sadly — "If Victoria knew her value there would have been five thousand people present to-day." We should remember, however, that the good people of her native city were decidedly Victorian in outlook and quite naturally so. They considered art as a minor and lady-like social grace, not as a social force. They had imported their way of life and seeing from the old land and being further removed and more isolated from the rest of Canada than any other sizeable community there was almost nothing in art to stir them and change their outlook. Moreover the equable and lovely climate of Victoria made it easy and pleasant to maintain their conservative way of life. A powerful creative individual in their midst such as Emily Carr was an anomaly. But in reality the loss was not Emily Carr's; it was that of a comfortable people who might have participated in a long and stirring creative everrt which would have given them an insight into and understanding of the real background and spirit of the country they inhabited. The effect of this lack of attention and consideration on such a passionate, powerful and creatively determined individual as Emily Carr was to turn her more fully to her beloved woods and skies and Indian villages. From the earliest work of her girlhood and on into the work of her last years, in hundreds of paintings and sketches, unfolds the inner story of a vital adventure, full of intense struggle to achieve and the reward of the living embodiment in paint of her love. 20 For most of her life she was also isolated from all modern expression in art, though there is no doubt that she was aided first by her contact with modern painting in France and secondly from her two visits to the artists in Eastern Canada. Both of these experiences gave her work a new impetus. She, however, evolved her own way of seeing and technique of expression from her long companionship with the trees and woods, the skies, mountains and Indian coast villages. The Pacific coast landscape in all its forms and moods is made for modern expression in paint. Its fullness of growth, its skies and hills, mountains, islands and headlands have a plastic amplitude, design and pattern such as exists in no other part of the continent. It is another world from all the land east of the Great Divide. Emily Carr was the first artist to discover this. It involved her in a conscious struggle to achieve a technique that would match the great, new motifs of British Columbia. It was primarily this long and deepening discovery which made her work modern and vital, as it was her love of its moods, mystery and majesty that gave it the quality of indwelling spirit which the Indians knew so well. It was also her life with the Indians and their native culture which led her to share and understand their outlook on nature and life, and gave her paintings of totems, Indian villages and the forest a quality and power which no white person had achieved before. THE WATER-COLOUR PAINTINGS Emily Carr's first paintings were in water-colour. These were Victorian renderings of the garden and poplar trees outside the old home on Government Street in Victoria, some with figures of the family seated at afternoon tea, some with the family pets at hand. Then followed the first of her paintings of Indian subjects. One of these is the painting of Indian mortuary boxes high in the trees (water-colour 101). The two old-fashioned water-colours of the woods (water-colours 104, 103-Ptae 1) with shafts of hazy sunlight shining through were painted shortly after, and the interior of the Indian school at Lytton (water-colour 105-Plate 2) which shows a marked advance in conviction and feeling for the life of the Indians. From that time on for a number of years she visited the Indian settlements on Vancouver Island, on the mainland coast and up the great rivers and painted numerous water-colours of Indian villages, totems and canoes. Many of these were frankly studies (water-colours 114, 113, 111), some painted as a means 21 of acquainting herself with Indian mythology and life; others painted specifically for use later in her oil paintings. They are all accurate renderings of the various subjects. Her use of the water-colour medium changed after she had painted in oils for a time. It became fuller, deeper, more solid, resonant and powerful as in the paintings (water-colours 119, 120). It took on more of the quality of her oil paintings and so we find in (water-colours 121, 122-Plate 12) that the whole picture is assembled in carefully worked out planes and masses and built into an over-all organization quite different in character from her earlier water-colours. The colours are also used in a different way. They are considered in terms of structure rather than as colour applied on a drawing. All through her work in all the mediums, we note this progress toward a deeper more integrated creative expression. THE OIL PAINTINGS From the time Emily Carr first painted as a little girl down to the year 1910 when she went to France, she painted in water-colours exclusively. Hence we find that her first oil paintings and those that followed for some years partake of the quality of water-colour painting (14, 1-Plate 4; S-Plate 5; 13-Plate 7). There are a large number of these early oil paintings and though they have more body than her early water-colours they yet have the looseness and flow of colour peculiar to that medium. They are akin to illustrations and are also more decorative in feeling and technique than her later oil paintings. In these we find groups of Indian figures whereas in the paintings of her middle and last period there are no human figures. These early oils are of Indian villages, totems and houses and were seen and painted in part from the outside, more objectively than her later paintings. She says herself in one of her diaries, "I took no liberties. I worked for history and cold fact. Next time I paint Indian I am going off on a tangent tear. There is something bigger than fact." She had not entered fully into the inner meaning of the forms nor into the full expressive quality of oil paint. They are not wholly individual but in part descriptive rather than the incisive embodiments of the very spirit of the British Columbia woods, trees and totems which came later. They are somewhat informative. They tell us about Indian villages, houses and totems, whereas her later paintings do not inform us, do not tell us 22 about trees, villages and totems but are equivalents on canvas of their very life, and, as a consequence, we are inwardly moved by a vital experience. We do not thereby acquire knowledge of the subjects. We participate in a revelation of their life and so come to understand its meaning. The great canvases of her middle and last period were seen, felt and painted from the inside, in terms of life and mood and spirit. This resulted in another and more profound way of painting. In these paintings Emily Carr entered into her fullness of individual creation. They have the power of the primeval earth force itself. They are deep and brooding in content and so we find that they have various plastic simplifications and a massing and ordering of planes dictated by the need to embody the feeling of power and weight and the rhythm of great growth (38, 48, 4<9-Plate 19; 43-Ptoe 17). In the two wood interiors (46, 47-Plate 18) we see this organic formalization of rhythmic and rippling planes and the bold modelling of tree trunks and masses carried close to its extreme and yet this only serves to accentuate the power and incisive mystery of the woods. In (66-Plate 22) "A Rushing Sea of Undergrowth" and (55) "The Forest" we may note an easing off of this severe vision and technique and hence a somewhat more comfortable experience of the majesty of the woods. In (51), "Grey" we find the mystery and inner beauty of the forest carried to its most spiritual and remote expression. It is, in the phrase of Richard Guggenheimer, "a finite aspect of infinity". In (34) "Totem and Forest" we see the totem pole rendered in its subtlest and perhaps most distinguished statement, with the background of the forest an inseparable part of its noble mood. In all of these paintings we may note that the simplifications, the planes and plastic curves and masses were not imposed on nature but were a creative discovery arising out of both the visual aspect of the scene and its spirit. The whole assembly and organization of the planes, curves and masses and deep mysterious dark of the woods, the upright columns of the tree trunks and the design of the skies were dictated by the mood and informing life of nature plus the impelling need to make the over-all form of the picture an harmonious unit, a dynamic organism. So much is this so that everywhere one goes in the British Columbia woods one feels Emily Carr and knows that she both understood them profoundly and found the means of getting this fully into her paintings. 23 The paintings of her last period are not so formalized, not so solid, not so weighted in mood. The paint itself is broken in rhythmic swirls and sweeps with a more dashing and seemingly careless handling. It is as though she had mastered the medium of oil paint and entered with greater freedom into a more lyrical interpretation of her beloved woods as in (68-Plate 23; 69—Plate 24). This freedom also resulted from the many oil-on-paper sketches which she painted with great rapidity and astonishing boldness. In her last three canvases we note a return to the style of her middle period but with a lighter touch and a more delicate use of colour. Note the two square canvases of totems (77, Id-Plate 26). In her very last oil painting "The Clearing" (79) we find a combination of many phases of her painting. It partakes both of the quality of water-colour and oil. It is lyrical, saturated in a mood of restrained joyousness. It is not that it is a better painting than the others but it does show that she was moving into another way of seeing and feeling. It denotes the beginning of a synthesis, toward the end of her life, of many phases of her experience and prefigures a somewhat new vision. THE CHARCOAL DRAWINGS All of the charcoal drawings were done in the prolific middle period of Emily Carr's work. In these drawings we find her widest range of expression and experimentation. Evidently charcoal was for her the most elastic medium lending itself to rapid sketches free from the problem of colour. So we may note in different drawings the all-pervasive moods of the West Coast, lyrical and poetical interpretations of nature, abstractions from nature, powerful and deeply considered pictorial structures, and revelations of the very life of trees and forest. Let us consider briefly the small charcoal drawings. These are all saturated with the mood of the Pacific coast woods, some of them drawn with great rapidity and with a minimum of means, such as (228, 225, 226), a few of them felt and worked into with longer consideration (232, 234), the two drawings (230, 229), in which the tree branches are rendered abstractly and yet lead us to experience the delicate mystery and musical pace of the spreading rhythmic branch in a way no literal drawing could convey, and lastly there is the fairy-like drawing of a young cedar (233); a drawing in which she achieved a rare delicacy anci subtlety of design and also captured 24 the very spirit of the little tree. In all these drawings because of her feeling, understanding and knowledge of the woods derived from long companionship and because of her ability to infuse all this into telling drawings, our interest is seized and held and gently compels us to participate in the experience they contain. THE LARGE CHARCOAL DRAWINGS These drawings represent many different ways of seeing nature, many different interpretations and creative searchings in an endeavour to find new and deeper pictorial means of embodying vital experiences. (201) is a forceful, realistic, objective study of a great bulging tree trunk in the forest. A similar drawing but one much more saturated with the powerful mood of the British Columbia wood interiors is (209). It is all strength and sinew, inner urge of growth and earth force, dark with an almost tropical ominousness. It is a unity of objective vision and subjective interpretation. The two drawings (202, 203) of Indian shacks and canoes show a quite different approach. They contain an ease and grace of proportion and a generous spaciousness akin to serene and stately poetry. (224) on the contrary with its fanciful dance-like movement of the round little trees and the great swirl of light in the background carried into the foreground shadings is a lyrical, playful vision of a wood interior. Different again are (206, 207). The pattern of the woods and volume of growth, all the factors of the woods worked out into an organization of planes and masses, lines and accents as studies for paintings. Then we have the two drawings of nature moods—the one, (212), a misty volume of trees, hills, sea and sky, the other (222) a silvery, prismatic break in a storm sky against the remote and wild silhouette of dark trees. These represent still another approach to nature. (236) a powerful and sinister mood of a Zunoqua totem pole, Indian shacks and cats is another mood again, somewhat akin to surrealism. In (211) we experience a massive over-all mood encompassing an organization of many plastic elements, which is at once a great symphonic structure and a subjective picture of the Indian environment before the white man 25 discovered this continent. A similar but more objective and less remote drawing is (210) of the roofs of Indian houses and the soaring reach of great trees. In all her work there is nothing quite like the pair of incisive, forceful drawings (204, 205—Plate 10). In these we see imaginatively conceived, tremendously paced, bold and formalized designs of Indian motifs and trees revealing the inner reality of the Indian outlook on life and nature. They feel like the source of all his symbols. Different again is the drawing of the noble tree trunks in the forest (208-Plate 14), a drawing of great dignity of proportion and design embodying the enduring spirit of the west coast forest. And lastly, let us pause before the large drawing of the great cedar (215). Here is the apotheosis of all her tree drawings and perhaps of her paintings of trees as well. It has at once an immense simplicity and power and contains the very living spirit of all patriarchal trees. As a drawing it is both old and modern. As an evocation it embodies the life in nature at its peak of nobility and at its most benign. THE SMALL BRUSH DRAWINGS These are sketches both drawn and painted on paper with oil paint. They were done with a minimum of rapid calligraphic-like strokes and scumbles, drags and washes of paint; with remarkable spontaneity and almost unconscious insight. They are epitomes of their subjects. Their inspired brilliance, their spontaneous summarization, is somewhat hidden under the impact of their total expressive power. Note the sturdiness of (252) and the utter simplicity of statement and yet deep resonance in (254, 255, 256, 257) and in (260), the one drawn or painted with colour, the evocation of an iridescent jewel hidden in the semblance of the woods. (262) was included in this group because it is the most careless of colour scumbles and yet it achieves an expression of youth in a little tree in the woods. THE OIL-ON-PAPER SKETCHES Emily Carr devised her own method and technique of painting with oils on paper because she needed to find a means of painting large sketches 26 with great rapidity and with little expense. She thinned the paint with gasoline so that great sweeps and washes could be painted with a minimum of effort. If she needed to develop a sketch after returning to her studio she used oil to make the paint flow swiftly and yet retain more body than was possible with gasoline. In these sketches as in all her work there is no padding, no filling in of spaces by patches of painting which do not contribute to the whole experience. However careless the strokes, sweeps, dashes and flicks may seem at first glance they all play an essential part in the painting. She painted more than 200 of these large oil sketches. The last group of 15, a few of which hang in this exhibition, was painted in 8 days at Mount Douglas Park outside of Victoria on her last sketching trip when she was 71. CONCLUSION There were three salient characteristics in the life of Emily Carr. They all had to do with her work. The first was that she eventually planned her life, her studios and abodes and everything around her to assist her work. All the mechanics of living were arranged with this end in view. The second was that her life was a creative on-going. Throughout her days her work in each medium kept changing and developing. She was always searching for new and more penetrating means of expressing her devotion. She wrote in one of her diaries, "Somehow I cannot feel things done two years ago are yourself of to-day. It is quite possible as you pass through growth that they might be better. You have your ups and downs of inspiration but your work of now—to-day—should have something that your work of yesterday did not, if you are thinking, if you are growing." I have dealt more fully with the charcoal drawings because they demonstrate best her continuous search both into the heart of the different subjects and for new pictorial solutions of the problem of an ever deeper, more incisive, more inclusive expression. 27 We may note thirdly that her last work in every medium points to new possibilities for future work, hints at new vision and suggests new means of communicating this vision. For the creative artist there is no finality, no one has said the last word and no one ever will. To him or her, life and therefore art is ever pregnant with unrealized possibilities. He or she knows that the creative spirit in man only unfolds by constantly leaving behind past modes and achievements. Yet he also knows that behind and perhaps within the temporal and changing in nature and in the finer creations of man, there resides something which endures, is ever the same, eternal and universal. This is the informing spirit in nature and in man himself in his better moments and in all great works of art in all ages and places. It is devotion to this throughout all change and beyond every other consideration that is the hall-mark of the true artist. It is just this inner imprimatur that we recognize in the life and work of Emily Carr and that in the last analysis gives her work the expressive power of vital art. 28 103 — W O O D Plate No. 1. INTERIOR This is an early naturalistic description of the vastness of the woods. 105 — LYTTON B.C., 1910 Plate No. 2. Here Emily Carr was intent on telling a story of these Indian children. '^^^mk 106 —THE FRENCH KNITTER Plate No. 3. In France she acquired a freer approach to painting, with emphasis on colour and light rather than descriptive detail. 7—INDIAN HOUSE INTERIOR WITH TOTEMS Plate No. 4. Following her year in France she was interested not only in the Indian people but also in the colour and pattern which she now saw in their environment. 8—HOUSE FRONT—GOLD HARBOUR Plate No. 5. II 9 —SKIDIGATE Plate No. 6. Aware that totems were relics of a passing civilization, she determined that her painting of them should be an accurate record of their appearance. M EMJLT CARR. 13 —CAPE MUDGE Plate No. 7. 25 — KISPIAX Plate No. 8. VILLAGE At this time Emily Carr lost interest in the incidental life of the villages. To describe the changing appearance of objects now seemed valueless. 26 —KITWANCOOL TOTEMS Plate No. 9. Through simplification and selection she sought instead to make apparent the quality and bigness of feeling that she felt inspired the creators of the totem poles. 205 — UNTITLED Plate No. 10. She made many charcoal drawings in order to find the underlying forms which best conveyed her sense of the weight and permanence of her subject matter. B9ri HH H 27 —SKIDIGATE Plate No. 11. She used her discoveries in canvases such as this. 122 — UNTITLED Plate No. 12. Even in the water-colours of this period she achieved an effect of solidity. 31 —BLUNDEN HARBOUR Plate No. 13. 208 —PORT RENFREW Plate No. 14. No longer contented with painting the totem poles, she sought to give expression tocher own feeling about the woods. r 37 —INSIDE A Plate No. 15. FOREST The colour, the depth, the silence, these Emily Carr felt were the essence, the soul of the woods. 154 — UNTITLED Plate No. 16. She became aware of other qualities of the woods—growth, and movement. She expressed these with greater ease in the more casually executed oil sketches than in the canvases. 43 — A YOUNG TREE Plate No. 17. Yet something of this sense of movement was incorporated into the canvases. 47 — FOREST, BRITISH COLUMBIA Plate No. 18. This canvas is on the same theme as the water-colour shown in Plate No. 1—but it conveys Emily Carr's feeling for her subject rather than what she literally saw. Ik I 49 —OLD AND NEW FOREST Plate No. 19. 164 — BRITISH COLUMBIA LANDSCAPE Plate No. 21. In her effort to render a sense of the immediacy of her experience, her technique became freer, more rapid, especially in the oil sketches. 66 —A RUSHING SEA OF UNDERGROWTH Plate No. 22. I life WBSmmmSfi 68 — AMONG THE TREES The rapidity, sureness and the spontaneity of I Plate No. 23. tne °il sketches is achieved in the later canvases. 69 —SCORNED AS TIMBER, BELOVED OF THE SKY Plate No. 24. Ik. 70 — FISHING Plate No. 25. STAGES trTm I MS^^fili^SPIiif wmi »fiS&SiBi«^v& 76 —A SKIDIGATE POLE Plate No. 26. Some of Emily Carr's last canvases were based on earlier paintings of totem poles. Comparing this with Plate No. 6 we find the facts are the same, the manner of seeing different. CATALOGUE OF THE EXHIBITION Many of Emily Carr's pictures have been exhibited at different times under variant titles. Those given here are either the ones provided by the owners or those inscribed on the faces or backs of the pictures. Since many of the titles are identical, and since a number of the pictures are untitled, numbers have been used throughout the catalogue for reference purposes. Where it has been possible, the earliest and most significant exhibitions in which pictures have been shown are noted. It is hoped that more complete research will be made in this field in the future. Pictures are drawn from the Emily Carr Trust Collection unless otherwise stated. Dimensions are given in inches—height preceding width. OIL PAINTINGS Note—Oil on canvas unless otherwise stated. 1. Indian War Canoe taken at Alert Bay during A Potlatch. (Oil on academy board) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 25 x 37. Dominion Gallery, Montreal. 2. Totem Poles Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 49Mx38^. Exhibited 1927, The National Gallery, Ottawa. Vancouver Art Gallery. 3. Indian Village, Alert Bay Signed M. Emily Carr. 26 x 32. Art Association of Montreal. Cover Plate. 4. Skidigate (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 25^x12%. 5. Skidigate (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 25^x12%. 6. Skidigate (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 25^x12. 7. Indian House Interior with Totems 35^x51. Plate No. 4. 8. House Front—Gold Harbour (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. 24 x 36^. Plate No. 5. 9. Skidigate (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 25Mxl2K- Plate No. 6. 10. Skidigate (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 253^x12%. 11. Skidigate (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 253^x12%. 12. Indian Raven Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1912. 30Mxl5K- 13. Cape Mudge Signed M. Emily Carr. 31% x 23 V2. Exhibited 1927, The National Gallery, Ottawa. Plate No. 7. 14. Kwakutle House (Oil on card) Signed M. Emily Carr. 23 x 35 M 15. Totem by the Ghost Rock Signed M. Emily Carr. 35 x 44 Y2. 16. Skidegate Signed M. Emily Carr. 24 x 11%. 17. Base of Kitwancool Pole Signed M. Emily Carr. 36^ x 21. 18. Totem Mother, Kitwancool Signed M. Emily Carr. 43 x 27. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 19. Totem Forest Signed M. Emily Carr. 503^ x 36. 20. Heina (Xoina) Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1928. . 51 x 36. The National Gallery, Ottawa. 55 ifTm 21. Kitwancool Signed M. Emily Carr. 40 x 32 %. 22. The Crying Totem Signed M. Emily Carr. 29 K x 15%. 23. Yan Mortuary Poles Signed M. Emily Carr. 33 x 24%. Ira Dilworth, Esq., Vancouver. 24. Vanquished Signed M. Emily Carr. 36 x 50H Exhibited 1933, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 25. Kispiax Village Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1929. 36x49%. Exhibited 1937, International Exposition, Paris. The Art Gallery of Toronto. Plate No. 8. 26. Kitwancool Totems Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1928. 42%x27. Hart House, University of Toronto. Plate No. 9. 27. Skidigate Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1928. 26%x42%. J. S. McLean, Esq., Toronto. Plate No. 11. 28. Silhouette No. 2 Signed M. E. Carr. 57% x 33%. 29. Three Totems Signed M. E. Carr. 42% x 27%. 30. The Beaver Totem Signed M. Emily Carr. 36% x 21Y2. Bruce Ross, Esq., Toronto. 31. Blunden Harbour Signed M. Emily Carr. 51 x 37. Exhibited—1933, The National Gallery, Ottawa. 1938, The Tate Gallery, London. 1942, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn. The National Gallery, Ottawa. Plate No. 13. 32. Guyasdoms d'Sonoqua Signed M. Emily Carr. 39% x 25 %. The Art Gallery of Toronto. 33. Big Raven Signed M. Emily Carr. 34% x 45. 34. Totem and Forest Signed M. Emily Carr. 50 % x 21 %. Exhibited 1931, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 35. Indian Church Signed M. Emily Carr. 41V2 x 27. Exhibited—1930, The National Gallery, Ottawa. 1938, The Tate Gallery, London. C. S. Band, Esq., Toronto. Frontispiece. 36. Nirvana Signed M. Emily Carr. 41V2 x 27 Y2. Exhibited 1930, The Art Gallery of Toronto. C. S. Band, Esq., Toronto. 37. Inside a Forest Signed M. Emily Carr. 42% x 27. C. S. Band, Esq., Toronto. Plate No. 15. 38. Old Time Coast Village Signed M. Emily Carr. 35% x 50K- Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 39. Wood Interior Signed M. Emily Carr. 42 x 27%. Miss Isabel McLaughlin, Toronto. 40. Western Forest Signed M. Emily Carr. 49 V2 x 35. The Art Gallery of Toronto. 41. Tree Signed M. Emily Carr. 40% x 21Y2. 42. ZUNOQUA OF THE CAT VILLAGE Signed M. E. Carr. 44y2 x 27 Y2. Exhibited 1933, The National Gallery, Ottawa. 43. A Young Tree Signed M. E. Carr. Plate No. 17. 42 x 27. 44. Sea Drift at the Edge of the Forest Signed Emily Carr. 44% x 27. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 45. Among the Firs Signed Emily Carr. 36 x 30. 46. Deep Forest Signed Emily Carr. 27 x 44. Exhibited—1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. 56 ULi 47. Forest, British Columbia Signed M. Emily Carr. 51 x 35 %. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. Plate No. 18. 48. The Little Pine Signed M. E. Carr. 42 x 27. Exhibited—1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 1939, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco. 49. Old and New Forest Signed M. E. Carr. 44 x 27%. Exhibited—1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. 1939, Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco. Plate No. 19. 50. Forest Light Signed M. E. Carr. 21 % x 18. Exhibited—1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 1942, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn. J. S. McLean, Esq., Toronto. 51. Grey Signed M. E. Carr. 43% x 27%. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. C. S. Band, Esq., Toronto. 52. Lilooet Indian Village Signed Emily Carr. 27 x 35%. Exhibited—1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. 53. Old Tree at Dusk Signed Emily Carr. 42 x 27. Exhibited 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. R. S. McLaughlin, Esq., Oshawa. 54. Village in the Hills Signed M. Emily Carr. 27 x 44. 55. Forest Signed Emily Carr. 46% x 30. 56. Wood Interior Signed Emily Carr. 51 x 34. 57. The Red Cedar Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 27. Mrs. James Fell, Vancouver. Plate No. 20. 58. The Path Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 27. Exhibited 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. 59. Loggers' Culls Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1935. 26 x 43. Exhibited 1936, The National Gallery, Ottawa. Vancouver Art Gallery. 60. Reforestation Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1936. 44 x 27. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. Gordon MacNamara, Esq., Toronto. 61. Study in Movement Signed Emily Carr. 26 x 43. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. The Art Gallery of Toronto. 62. Fir Tree and Sky Signed M. E. Carr. 44 x 27. Exhibited 1937, The Art Gallery of Toronto. Douglas Duncan, Esq., Toronto. 63. Spring Signed Emily Carr. 32% x 27. Ira Dilworth, Esq., Vancouver. 64. Pemberton Meadows Signed Emily Carr. 36 x 27. 65. Above the Gravel Pit Signed Emily Carr. 30 x 40. Exhibited 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. 66. A Rushing Sea of Undergrowth Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 27. Exhibited 1939, New York World's Fair. Plate No. 22. 67. Yellow Moss Signed Emily Carr. 27 x 40%. Laing Fine Art Galleries, Toronto. 68. Among the Trees Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 26%. Exhibited 1940, The Art Gallery of Toronto. Plate No. 23. 69. Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky Signed M. E. Carr. 44x27. Exhibited 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. Plate No. 24. 70. Fishing Stages Signed Emily Carr. 26% x 19%. W. H. Clarke, Esq., Toronto. Plate No. 25. 57 fy 71. Juice of Life 106. The French Knitter Signed Emily Carr. 25 % x 20 %. Signed Emily Carr , France. Dated 1911. Ira Dilworth, Esq., Vancouver. 20% x 16%. (sight size) 72. Trees in the Sky Exhibited 1944, Dominion Gallery, Montreal. Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 27. Exhibited 1939, The Art Gallery of Toronto. T. C. Daly, Esq., < Plate No. 3. JTTAWA. 107. Gate in France 74. Masset Bears Siened Emilv Carr. 15 x 10^. (sight size) Signed Emily Carr. 39% x 16%. Exhibited 1944, Dominion Gallery, Montreal. 75. The Masset Pole, Queen Charlotte Bruce Ross, Esq., Toronto. Islands Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 27. Exhibited 1941, Vancouver Art Gallery. 108. 1ANOO 21x29%. The National Gallery, Ottawa. 76. A Skidigate Pole 109. TSATSINUCHOMI, B.C. Signed Emily Carr. 34 x 30. Signed Emily Carr. 22%x30. Plate No. 26. 110. Captain Jack's House, Friendly Cove 77. A Skidigate Beaver Pole Signed Emily Carr. Dated 1929. 30x22%. Signed Emily Carrr. 34 x 30. 111. Tribe Klawatsis, Karlukwess Village 78. Untitled Signed Emily Carr. 22%x30%. Signed Emily Carr. 44 x 27. 112. TSATSISNUKOMI, TRIBE KLAWATSIS 79. The Clearing Signed Emily Carr. 22%x30%. Signed Emily Carr. Dated 1942. 27 x 44. 113. Skedans Ira Dilworth, Esq., Vancouver. 114. Signed Emily Carr. Cumshewa, Q.C.I. 21%x30%. water-colours Signed Emily Carr. 30%x22. No te—Unless otherwise stated, dimensions 115. Tanoo Signed M. E. Carr. 30%x22%. given are paper size. 101 . Alert Bay—Mortuary Boxes 116. KlTWANGAK 30%x22%. Signed M. Carr. Dated 1908. 21% x 15% 117. Maud Island, Q.C.I. Siffned M. Emilv Carr. 30 V* x 22 H 102 . Indian War Canoe Signed M. Carr. Dated 1908. 10 x 14. Dominion Gallery, Montreal. 118. Beaver Pole, Skidigate Signed Emily Carr. 30%x22%. H 103 . Wood Interior ■ fr Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1909. 119. Queen Charlotte Islands Totem 28%x21%. Signed M. Emily C arr. Dated 1928. Plate No. 1. 30%x21%. 104 . Untitled Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1910. 30x21%. 120. 121. Kispiax Totems Signed M. Emily C Untitled arr. 30%xl7%. 105 . Lytton, B.C., 1910 Signed M. Emily Carr. Dated 1910. 15%x21%. Plate No. 2. 122. Signed M. Emily C Untitled Signed Emily Carr. Plate No. 12. arr. 30 x 11. 30 x 22. 58 m. 123. Zunoqua 17%xl2%. 124. Koskimo Signed Emily Carr. 30 % x 22 %. 125. Pines in May Signed M. Emily Carr. 30% x 21. OIL SKETCHES Note—Oil-on-paper. 151. Abstract Tree Forms Signed Emily Carr, M.JE. Carr. 24 x 36. 152. Formalized Trees, Spring Signed M. E. Carr. 36 x 24. 153. Untitled Signed M. E. Carr. 35% x 24%. 154. Untitled Signed M. Emily Carr. 35 x 24. Plate No. 16. 155. Untitled 24%x36%. 156. Untitled Signed Emily Carr. 35 % x 23 %. 157. Untitled Signed M. E. Carr. 24 x 36. 158. Untitled Signed M. Emily Carr. 24% x 36%. 159. Deep Forest, Lighted Signed Emily Carr. 36 x 24. 160. Tree Signed Emily Carr. 35 x 23 %. 161. Three Cedar Trunks Signed M. Emily Carr. 36 x 24. 162. Trees Signed M. E. Carr. 32 x 23 (sight size). Gordon MacNamara, Esq., Toronto. 163. Forest Edge and Sky Signed Emily Carr. 36 x 24. 164. British Columbia Landscape Signed M. E. Carr. 36% x 24%. Douglas Duncan, Esq., Toronto. Plate No. 21. 165. Logged Over Hillside Signed M. E. Carr. 22 % 1 33. Laing Fine Art Galleries, Toronto. 166. Flung Beyond the Waves Signed Emily Carr. 24 x 36. Exhibited 1938, Vancouver Art Gallery. J. S. McLean, Esq., Toronto. 167. Stumps and Sky Signed Emily Carr. 24 x 36. 168. Deep Woods Signed Emily Carr. 24 x 36. 169. Forest Sketch Signed Emily Carr. 24 x 36. 170. Overhead Signed Emily Carr. 24 x 36. 171. Forest Fancy 24 x 36. 172. Cedar Sanctuary Signed Emily Carr. 36 x 24. CHARCOAL DRAWINGS Note—None of these drawings are signed or dated. Dimensions given are paper size. 201. Friendly Cove 29 x 22. 202. Friendly Cove 18%x24%. 203. Friendly Cove 18%x24%. 204. Untitled 24% x 18%. 205. Untitled 24% x 18%. Plate No. 10. 206. Untitled 24%xl8%. 207. Nootka 24%xl8%. 208. Port Renfrew 25%x20. Plate No. 14. 209. Port Renfrew 24%xl8%. 210. Nootka 30 x 22. 59 F 211 Untitled 19 x 24%. 212. Untitled 19x24%. 213. Untitled 18%x24%. 214. Untitled 18%x24%. 215. Untitled 36 x 24. 216. Untitled 36 x 24. 217. Untitled 17%xll%. 218. Untitled 17%xll%. 219. Untitled H%xl7%. 220. Untitled 24 x 36. 221. Untitled 24%xl9%. 222. Untitled 19 x 25. 223. Untitled 19x24%. 224. Untitled 18%x24%. 225. Untitled 17%xll%. 226. Untitled 17%xll%. 227. Untitled 17%xl.2%. 228. Untitled 17%xl2%. 229. Untitled 11%x17%. 230. Untitled 11%x17%. 231. Untitled 17%xll%. 232. Untitled 17%xl2%. 233. Untitled 17%xl2%. 234. Untitled 17%xll%. 235. Untitled 17%xl2%. 236. Koskemo 30 x 22. BRUSH DRAWINGS Note—Oil-on-paper, unless otherwise stated. 251. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11%. 252. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11%. 253. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11%. 254. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11%. 255. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11%. 256. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11 %. 257. Untitled In black and white. 17% x 11%. 258. Untitled In black and white. Signed Carr. 18x11%. 259. Untitled In black and white. Signed M. E. Carr. 18x11%. 260. Untitled In colour. 18 x 11%. 261. Untitled Oil on canvas—in colour. 18 x 11%. 262. Untitled In colour. 18 x 12. 263. Untitled In black and white. 11% x 18. 264. Untitled In colour. 11% x 18. 265. Untitled In black and white. 18 x 11 %. 60 ty^ 1 CHRONOLOGY 1871 Born in Victoria of English parents. 1886 Mother died. 1888 Father died. 1889—about 1895 In San Francisco where she studied at the San Francisco School of Art, later known as the Mark Hopkins School of Art. about 1895 Returned to Victoria where she taught art. late 1890's First visit to west coast Indian villages. about 1899-1904 In England. Studied at the Westminster School of Art, London. Ill in sanatorium over a year. 1904 Returned to Canada. 1904-1910 Taught painting in Vancouver and Victoria. More trips among the Indians. 1905 Probably the first press notice appeared in a Victoria paper. Did a series of cartoons for "The Week", Victoria paper. 1910-1911 In France, with Alice. Studied in Paris at the Academie Colarossi and with John Duncan Fergusson and Harry Gibbs. Later went sketching with Gibbs in Brittany. Recurrence of illness brought about a visit to Sweden. 1911 Returned to Victoria. Attempted to establish herself in Vancouver and Victoria. about 1911 First exhibition held in her studio. New style of painting much criticized. Decided to paint totems. 1913 Built the apartment house with studio at 646 Simcoe St. (the "House of All Sorts") and moved into it. 1915-1916 Marius Barbeau of the National Museum heard of her from his half- breed interpreter at Port Simpson and visited her studio. about 1917-1929 Bred sheep dogs. 1921 Mortimer Lamb, impressed by her work, wrote to A. Y. Jackson and Eric Brown of the National Gallery on her behalf. Again visited by Marius Barbeau who also mentioned her work to Eric Brown. 1924 Exhibited 4 pictures with the Island Arts and Crafts Society. about 1925 Apparently painting more continuously, doing pottery, and making rugs. First exhibition in the east; 26 pictures included in Canadian West 1927 Coast Art arranged by the National Gallery of Canada. Came east for the exhibition. Met Lawren Harris and other members of the Group of Seven. 1928 Three pictures purchased by the National Gallery. 1929 First exhibition with the Ontario Society of Artists. 1930 Exhibited five pictures with the Group of Seven in Toronto. Included in the American Federation of Arts exhibition, which opened at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington. First one-man show in the west; at the Crystal Gardens, Victoria. 61 (ST 1930 First one-man exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum. Trip east to Toronto. 1931 Included in the First Baltimore Pan-American Exhibition. 1932 Had one picture in the First Annual Exhibition of Western Water- color Painting at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor at San Francisco. 1933 Trip east to Chicago and Toronto. Painting "Kispiax Totems" presented to the B. C. Archives by a number of organizations. Exhibited at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. First exhibition with the Canadian Group of Painters and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. Exhibited "Vanquished" in Amsterdam at the Stedelijk Museum. 1935 Held an exhibition at her studio as an attempt to start a "People's Gallery". 1936 One-man show at Hart House, University of Toronto. Disposed of her apartment house (the "House of All Sorts"). Moved to 316 Beckley St. Began to write seriously. 1937 First one-man show at The Art Gallery of Toronto. Exhibited at the Paris International Exposition. First heart attack made her realize she must slow down. 1938 First one-man show at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London in a "Century of Canadian Art" Exhibition. 1939 In hospital with heart attack one month. 1940 Slight stroke; moved beside her sister at 218 St. Andrews St. Exhibited in the International Business Machines Corporation collection at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto; awarded bronze medal. 1941 Published her first book "Klee Wyck" which won the Governor- General's Award for general literature. 1942 Emily Carr Trust founded. Last sketching trip to Mount Douglas near Victoria. Suffered another severe heart attack; nearly died. "Book of Small" published. 1943 One-man exhibition at the Art Association of Montreal. 1944 Slight paralytic stroke affected her left arm; almost continuously confined to bed but continued to write and paint. Published "House of All Sorts." One-man show at the Dominion Gallery, Montreal. Exhibited at Yale University in "Canadian Art" show. 1945 During February worked on oil-on-paper sketches, preparing them for a show in Vancouver in April. This show was not held. Died March 2, 1945, at St. Mary's Priory, only two blocks away from the old Carr house. 62 yt EXHIBITIONS IN HER LIFETIME GENERAL EXHIBITIONS WHICH INCLUDED HER WORK Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover. Contemporary painting in Canada. 1943. (Travelling exhibition only) American Federation of Arts. Contemporary Canadian artists. 1930. (Toured) Baltimore Museum of Art. First Baltimore Pan-American exhibition. 1931. (Toured) California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Western watercolor painting. 1932. (Awarded honorable mention) Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto. 1933. International Business Machines Corporation, Toronto. Contemporary art of Canada and Newfoundland, collection of the International Business Machines Corporation shown at the Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto. 1940. International Federation of Business and Professional Women. Exposition d'oeuvres de femmes artistes organisee par le Comite International des Beaux Arts at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. 1933. London. Tate Gallery. A century of Canadian art. 1938. Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. Annual exhibition of Canadian art. 1928, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933. Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. Exhibition of Canadian West Coast art arranged in co-operation with the National Museum, Ottawa, the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, McGill University and the Art Association of Montreal. 1927. (Toured). (Included 26 works by Emily Carr). Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. Exhibition of contemporary Canadian painting arranged on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation of New York for circulation in the southern dominions of the British Empire. 1936. (Toured). Paris. Exposition Internationale. 1937. Royal British Colonial Society of Artists, London. Paintings, drawings and sculpture by artists of the British Empire overseas. 1937. San Francisco. Golden Gate International Exposition. Contemporary art. 1939. Toronto. Art Gallery of Toronto. Development of painting in Canada. 1945. (Toured). Yale University. Gallery of Fine Arts. Canadian art 1760-1943. 1944. 63 f one-man exhibitions Dominion Gallery, Montreal. 1944. Hart House, University of Toronto. 1936. Montreal. Art Association of Montreal. 1943. Seattle Art Museum. 1930, 1943. Toronto. Art Gallery of Toronto. 1937, 1940, 1943. Toronto. Lyceum Club and Women's Art Association. 1936, 1941. Vancouver. Art Gallery. 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1943. Vancouver. At the artist's studio. About 1912. Vancouver. University of British Columbia. 1938. Victoria. At the artist's studio, 646 Simcoe St. 1935. Victoria. Crystal Gardens Gallery. Under the auspices of the Women's Canadian Club. 1930. CANADIAN SOCIETIES EXHIBITIONS WHICH INCLUDED EMILY CARR'S WORK British Columbia Society of Fine Arts. Official exhibition of B.C. artists. Annual exhibition. (Many years). Canadian Group of Painters. Art Gallery of Toronto, 1933, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1942; Art Association of Montreal, 1938, 1942; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1938. Canadian Group of Painters. Travelling exhibition sponsored by the National Gallery of Canada. 1936, 1942. Canadian Group of Painters. Exhibition at New York World's Fair, 1939. Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. Art Gallery of Toronto, 1933. Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. New York World's Fair, 1939. Group of Seven. Art Gallery of Toronto. 1930, 1931. Island Arts and Crafts Society. Annual exhibition. 1924. Ontario Society of Artists. Annual exhibition. 1929, 1930, 1931. PUBLIC COLLECTIONS WHERE HER WORK MAY BE SEEN Montreal. Art Association of Montreal. Toronto. Art Gallery of Toronto. Ottawa. National Gallery of Canada. Toronto. Hart House, University of Toronto. Seattle. Seattle Art Museum. Vancouver. Vancouver Art Gallery. 64 iLy|:.-: Y m #> IRELAND &ALLANL? Books & Stationery VANCOUVER.B.C. £L- ^ IM:
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Books
ND249 .C2
III-0790
English
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Toronto : Oxford University Press
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Original Format: University of British Columbia. Library. Rare Books and Special Collections.ND249 .C2
Emily Carr : her paintings and sketches
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