Emily Carr the Artist, The Writer, The Art

Born in Victoria, British Columbia December13, 1871, and died March 2, 1945.

She has the sweetest face.  Emily Carr was beautiful.

She studied in San Francisco and traveled to London to broaden her artistic horizons.  In 1910 she was living and studying in France, by1913 she returned permanently to Victoria for financial reasons.

Where she lived conservative art was in vogue.  Her techniques were alien and her art not readily accepted.  I believe she struggled financially and not accepted as an artist.

In 1927 she came to know and be involved with Lawren Harris and the Group of Seven.  She was invited to show her work and they were supportive of her.  Possibly she received financial support from them.They named her “The Mother of Modern Art”.

Somewhere around 1917 she began living with the native Nuu-chah-nulth Indians, on Vancouver Island's west coast.  She had been nicknamed Carr Klee Wyck, "the laughing one." Carr painted and later wrote of these experiences.

To support herself she was a potter, boarding house landlady, and dog breeder.  Her writing was good but some say not entirely reliable in facts.


I would like to have known her, lived with the Indians, and talked about all she did.  She looks out at me from this top photograph, as if she knows me.


Her art is simple, colorful, and mystical.

It is my belief had she plenty of money, she would have painted exclusively.

Finding her art:

Indian Church - 1929

Untitled (Forest Interior Black and Grey) - c.1930

Big Raven 1931

Guyasdoms d'Sonoqua - 1928-30 Zunoqua of the Cat Village - 1931

Tree Trunk - c.1931

Untitled (Formalized Cedar) - c.1931

Red Cedar 1931-33

A Rushing Sea of Undergrowth - 1932-35

The Mountain - 1933

Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky - 1935

Old Tree at Dusk - c.1936

Self-Portrait - 1938 Totem Walk at Sitka - 1917

Forest - c.1940

Cedar Sanctuary - c.1942

Odds & Ends - Date Unknown

✻The Best Biography and Information Line:

for Emily Carr - click here.