Sources & Resources

Carr’s work has been widely written about, and her own writings provide a fascinating narration of her thoughts, travels, and considerations of artistic life. Through these texts, as well as plays, documentary films, websites, and a number of major exhibitions, Carr’s powerful influence on art in Canada is well documented.

Key Exhibitions

Carr’s work has been exhibited across Canada, in Europe, and in the United States. These entries do not include the numerous small shows that she also took part in, especially her exhibitions in Victoria at the beginning of her career. Her work has been the subject of more retrospectives than any other historical Canadian artist.

Writings by Emily Carr

Carr’s gifts as an artist were paralleled by her literary accomplishments. She wrote extensively on her life and work, the people who were important to her, and the places where she lived and travelled. Her efforts were rewarded by a wide readership and acclaim and helped to reinforce her reputation as an important figure on the national art scene.

“Lecture on Totems,” 1913. In Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr and Other Writings. Edited by Susan Crean. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2004.

“Modern and Indian Art of the West Coast.” Supplement, McGill News, June 1929.

Fresh Seeing: Two Addresses by Emily Carr. Speech to Women’s Canadian Club of Victoria, Crystal Garden, 1930. Preface by Doris Shadbolt, introduction by Ira Dilworth. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1972.

Klee Wyck. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1941.

The Book of Small. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1942.

The House of All Sorts. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1944.

Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr. Foreword by Ira Dilworth. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1946.

A Little Town and a Little Girl. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1951.

The Heart of a Peacock. Edited by Ira Dilworth. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1953.

Pause: A Sketch Book. Edited by Ira Dilworth. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1953.

An Address. Introduction by Ira Dilworth. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1966. Reprinted with introduction by Gerta Moray. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2006.

Dear Nan: Letters of Emily Carr, Nan Cheney and Humphrey Toms. Edited by Doreen Walker. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1990.

Flirt, Punk and Loo: My Dogs and I. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1997.

The Complete Writings of Emily Carr. Edited by Doris Shadbolt. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1997.

Opposite Contraries: The Unknown Journals of Emily Carr and Other Writings. Edited by Susan Crean. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2003.

Corresponding Influence: Selected Letters of Emily Carr and Ira Dilworth. Edited by Linda Morran. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.

Sister and I: From Victoria to England. Introduction by Kathryn Bridge. Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2011.

Sister and I in Alaska. Edited by David Silcox. Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2014.

Critical Interpretations

Comprehensive documentation exists on Carr both in major art publications and in critical reviews. New archival discoveries have also been made regularly since her death, and the scholarship on her work continues to grow and be enhanced by new interpretations.

Blanchard, Paula. The Life of Emily Carr. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1987.

Braid, Kate. Emily Carr: Rebel Artist. Montreal: XYZ Publishing, 2000.

Bridge, Kathryn. Emily Carr in England. Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2014.

Crosby, Marcia. “Construction of the Imaginary Indian.” In Vancouver Anthology: The Institutional Politics of Art, edited by Stan Douglas, 267–91. Vancouver: Talon Books, 1991.

Dawn, Leslie. National Visions, National Blindness: Canadian Art and Identities in the 1920s. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2006.

DeSoto, Lewis. Emily Carr. Extraordinary Canadians series, edited by John Ralston Saul. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2011.

Hembroff-Schleicher, Edythe. Emily Carr: The Untold Story. Saanichton, B.C.: Hancock House, 1978.

Hill, Charles C., Johanne Lamoureux, and Ian M. Thom, eds. Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2006.

Laurence, Robin. Beloved Land: The World of Emily Carr. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.

Macnair, Peter, and Jay Stewart. To the Totem Forests: Emily Carr and Her Contemporaries Interpret Coastal Villages. Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1999. Exhibition catalogue.

Mallory, Catherine. Victorian and Canadian Worlds of Emily Carr: Study of a Divided Imagination. Master’s thesis, Dalhousie University, Halifax, 1979.

Milroy, Sarah, and Ian Dejardin, eds. From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario; London, U.K.: Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2014.

Moray, Gerta. “Wilderness, Modernity and Aboriginality in the Paintings of Emily Carr.” Journal of Canadian Studies 33, no. 2 (1998): 43–65.

———. “Emily Carr and the Traffic in Native Images.” In Antimodernism and Artistic Experience: Policing the Boundaries of Modernism, edited by Lynda Jessup and Matthew Teitelbaum, 71–93. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.

———. “The Invisibility of Lee Nam, Chinese Artist in British Columbia.” In Untold Stories of British Columbia, edited by Paul Wood. Victoria: University of Victoria Humanities Centre, 2003.

———. Unsettling Encounters: First Nations Imagery in the Art of Emily Carr. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2006.

Newlands, Anne. Emily Carr: An Introduction to Her Life and Art. Willowdale, ON: Firefly, 1996.

O’Brian, John, and David Alexander, eds. Gasoline, Oil, and Paper: The 1930s Oil-on-Paper Paintings of Emily Carr. Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.

O’Brian, John, and Peter White, eds. Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity, and Contemporary Art. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007.

Schiff, Bennett. “Canada’s National Treasure.” Smithsonian, March 1999, 102–11.

Shadbolt, Doris. The Art of Emily Carr. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1979.

———. Emily Carr. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1990.

———. Seven Journeys: The Sketchbooks of Emily Carr. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002.

Thom, Ian. Emily Carr in France. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1991. Exhibition catalogue.

———. Emily Carr: Art and Process. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.

Tippett, Maria. Emily Carr: A Biography. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1979. Reprint, Toronto: Penguin Canada, 1982.

Udall, Sharyn. Carr, O’Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Walker, Stephanie Kirkwood. This Woman in Particular: Contexts for the Biographical Image of Emily Carr. Foreword by William Closson James. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1996.

Film and Theatre

Carr’s life story and art have fascinated audiences since the National Film Board of Canada produced the first film on her life in 1946, as part of a Canadian artists series. Since that time her work has been featured in a number of critically acclaimed documentaries and stage productions.

Four major documentaries have been produced on the life of Emily Carr. A one-hour piece, The Life and Times of Emily Carr, was produced in 1997 by Biography Channel, a Canadian television network affiliated with the CBC. In 1978 the National Film Board of Canada produced two films, Growing Pains and Little Old Lady on the Edge of Nowhere.

The feature-length documentary Winds of Heaven: Emily Carr, Carvers and the Spirit of the Forest(2010, directed by Michael Ostroff) examines her work with indigenous cultures more thoroughly. The National Film Board produced Bone Wind Fire (2011), a short documentary about Carr, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo.

A short memorial presented in 1963 on CBC Radio, featuring A.Y. Jackson, can be heard athttp://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/arts-entertainment/visual-arts/visual-arts-general/remembering-artist-emily-carr.html. Courtesy Royal British Columbia Museum Archives, Victoria, D-03843.

Carr’s work has also been the inspiration for numerous stage productions: Emily Carr: A Stage Biography with Pictures (Herman Voaden, 1960); Klee Wyck: A Ballet for Emily Carr (score by Ann Mortifee, performed by the Anna Wyman Dance Theatre, CBC TV, 1975); Song of This Place (Joy Coghill, 1987); The Magnificent Voyage of Emily Carr (Jovette Marchessault, 1990, published as a book in 1992); and The Remarkable Emily Carr (Susan Shillingford, 2008).

Web Resources

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria: http://aggv.ca/collection/emily-carr

Canadian Encyclopedia: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emily-carr

Library and Archives Canada, To the Totem Forests: Emily Carr and Contemporaries Interpret Coastal Villages: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/totems/contents.htm

Vancouver Art Gallery: http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/collection_and_research/emily_carr.html

Virtual Museum of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery: http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/sgc-cms/expositions-exhibitions/emily_carr/en/index.php