Tomorrow, December 13th, is the birthday of famous Canadian artist Emily Carr. In honour of her, today’s blog post is a spotlight on the artist.
Carr was, as is eternalized on her gravestone, a lover of nature. She was a prolific landscape painter and developed an incredibly unique style that was influenced by early modernism and post-impressionist styles. While Carr’s art career did not gain public recognition until she was 57 years old, she is now known as a renowned artist and author, having created some of Canada’s most famous paintings and sketches. Before finding this success, Carr was largely isolated from the artistic world. After gaining recognition by the National Gallery of Canada, she met and became associated with the Group of Seven (Emily Carr, 2013). Finally achieving recognition after working in relative solitude for many years was inspiring for Carr and resulted in a period of prolific painting and the creation of some of her most famous works (Emily Carr, 2013).
After developing chronic illness in her later years, Carr focused more attention toward writing and published three books before her death in 1945. Two more books as well as sketchbooks and journals of Carr’s were published posthumously (Emily Carr, 2013). Many of these written works have been completely digitized and made available through UBC’s open collections.
Hundreds of Thousands – the Journal of Emily Carr, 1966:
Emily Carr had a pet monkey called Woo. Carr was extremely fond of little Woo, who is mentioned regularly throughout her journal with stories of mischief, playfulness and general adorability.
This journal entry from September 9th, 1933 includes an excerpt in which Carr recalls caring for Woo when she was ill after ingesting some paint. From page 57.
This portrait of Woo, done by Carr, can be found on p. 107 of the publication of her journal, the original is currently housed in the Royal BC Museum archives.
UBC Archives houses at least 48 letters from Emily to her friend Ruth Humphrey which touch on topics such as art/drawing, travel, Emily’s health and ongoing illness. In this letter Emily is updating her friend on her health:
Carr published her first book in 1941 which was recognized nationally and received the Governor General’s award that year. Klee Wyck is titled after the name that was given to Carr while she was living amongst the Indigenous people of Ucluelet, British Columbia in 1914. The book is a partly autobiographical collection of short stories in which Carr recounts her time living with West Coast First Nations. The book also includes sketches Carr did during this time, including this one from page 103:
The first page of the book begins to recount her arrival in Ucluelet:
Published in 1942, part 1 of The Book of Small reminiscences on her childhood in Victoria.
Carr went to England to study and in 1902 she became very ill, subsequently spending 18 months in Sunhill Sanatorium in England. Pause (1953) was published posthumously and features sketches she created during that time alongside her notes on each sketch.
Emily Carr passed away on 2nd March, 1945 at the age of 74 after experiencing years of health issues following several heart attacks and subsequent chronic illness. The Nelson Daily News published this article the day after she passed:
We hope you enjoyed this blog post! If you are interested, there are many more of Carr’s written works available through UBC’s Open Collections. Here are links to several of them:
Growing Pains: the autobiography of Emily Carr (1946)
Works cited:
Emily Carr. The Canadian Encyclopedia. (2013, June 23).
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/emily-carr