About Emily Carr, the Artist

Emily Carr (1871-1945)

Emily Carr at age 21

Internationally renowned painter and writer Emily Carr interpreted the Pacific Northwest landscape and its indigenous culture at a time when these subjects were unfamiliar outside of this region.  She studied in the United States, England and France, the Victoria-born artist and returned to Canada where she began painting the land around her. She became increasingly drawn to all things Canadian, to nature in its majesty, and to the important influence of First Nations people, culture, and traditions.

R | Forest, British Columbia, 1931–1932 oil on canvas 130.0 x 86.8 cm Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Emily Carr Trust VAG 42.3.9 Photo: Trevor Mills, Vancouver Art Gallery

Carr was an independent woman and a Westerner who gained prominence at a time when Western Canadians and women artists were not recognized internationally. Carr lived in a time when opportunities for women were limited and her trips into the forest were seen as somewhat eccentric and inappropriate by her peers. She nevertheless gained a significant reputation, as a painter, writer, potter, illustrator, and textile artist and was a cultural pioneer in Victoria where she lived for many years. She was not able to give up her day job and managed a boarding house for many years. Through it all, Emily Carr spoke her mind.

To this day her work is widely collected by museums and private individuals. 


Emily Carr with friends and caravan “Elephant” on sketching trip, 1934 Photograph by Mrs. S.F. Morley British Columbia Archives, B-09610

 

During her lifetime, her art was exhibited not only in Canada, but in the United States and Europe. She is valued as an important part of Canadian art history and her art is exhibited and enjoyed around the world. Carr continues to be viewed as an environmentalist who painted insightful, prophetic images of both lush forests and clear-cut mountainsides; as a person deeply aware and respectful of the cultural diversity of the Canadian Northwest, who understood and promoted the intrinsic value in the native Northwest coast peoples and their art; and as a nationalist with a profound love of her country, its natural beauty and power, and the pioneering spirit that continues to shape it today.

 The Vancouver Art Gallery website is an excellent resource on the life and work of Emily Carr. 

Also the National Gallery of Canada has a good selection of Emily Carr's work.