Who was Emily Carr?

​

Emily Carr (1871 –  1945) An iconic and well known artist around the world, this Victoria BC born Canadian artist and writer was inspired by the Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest.  Emily was one of the first painters in Canada to adopt a modernist and post impressionist painting style and is known for her landscape scenes of western Vancouver Island and Haidi Gwai.  She was closely associated with the Group of Seven during the 1930's.  As well as being "an artist of stunning originality and strength", she was an exceptionally late bloomer, starting the work for which she is best known at the age of 57.

​

Although now considered a Canadian legend, Carr was an eccentric artist who succeeded against the odds.  Living and working mostly in seclusion, one of the most enduring images is that of her pushing a beat-up old pram into downtown Victoria, loaded with dogs, cats, birds — and her beloved monkey Woo... the animals she turned to for the love and company she craved.

​

"Woo was many things to Carr—a surrogate daughter, a reflection of herself, a piece of the wild inside her downtown Victoria boarding house. Welcoming the mischievous Woo into her life, Carr also welcomed a freedom that allowed a full blooming of artistic expression and gave Canada and the world great art unlike any other before or since. However, despite Carr’s clear love for Woo, her chaotic life did not always allow Carr to properly care for her. Tragically, after Carr was hospitalized due to heart failure, she arranged for Woo to be sent to the Stanley Park Zoo. Bereft of Carr, Woo died alone in her cage only a year later."

Excerpt from: WOO, THE MONKEY WHO INSPIRED EMILY CARR by: Grant Hayter-Menzies 2019

 

Following a series of heart attacks and a stroke, she was forced to give up painting and her focus shifted to writing,  She became an accomplished writer, publishing  The Book of Small (1942), The House of All Sorts (1944), and posthumously, Growing Pains (1946),  Pause (1953), The Heart of a Peacock (1953), and Hundreds and Thousands (1966).

​

The family home she grew up in still stands in Victoria and is now a cultural centre and gardener's delight!!.