PHOTO ESSAY

Regarding Emily

Taking a fresh look at Emily Carr

By Rachel Giese
June 6, 2006

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Courtesy National Gallery of Canada.

Fir Tree and Sky (c. 1935-1936)
oil on canvas, 102 x 69 cm

Carr went to Paris in 1910 to study; two of her paintings were selected for a prestigious exhibit. Despite her success in Europe, she suffered two breakdowns and returned to B.C. in 1912. She had a blossoming reputation as a painter, but couldn’t support herself with her art. Instead, she grudgingly ran a boarding house and all but abandoned painting for 14 years.

Then, in 1927, Carr was visited by Eric Brown, the director of the National Gallery in Ottawa. (The historical record is silent on whether Carr offered Brown a chair.) He was curating an ambitious exhibit that juxtaposed traditional work by Northwest Coast native artists with work by contemporary non-native artists on native themes. About 50 pieces of Carr’s work were selected.

The exhibit — which is recreated in part in New Perspectives — renewed interest in Carr and re-ignited her career at the age of 56. It also introduced her to the Group of Seven, whose paintings and friendship — she was particularly close to Lawren Harris — would profoundly change her life and work. In 1929, Harris encouraged Carr to focus less on native themes and turn to the forests themselves. Her landscapes slowly began to move out of the dense forests to the open skies, becoming freer, airier and looser, as evidenced in this work.