Emily Carr

Emily Carr

Emily Carr (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist who was inspired by the monumental art and villages of the First Nations and the landscapes of British Columbia. She also was a vivid writer and chronicler of life in her surroundings, praised for her "complete candour" and "strong prose". Klee Wyck, her first book, published in 1941, won the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction and this book and others written by her or compiled from her writings later are still much in demand today. Carr's keynote paintings such as The Indian Church (1929) (retitled in 2018 by the Art Gallery of Ontario to Church at Yuquot Village), were not widely known in Canada at first. But her stature as one of Canada's most important artists continued to grow. Today, she is considered a cherished figure of Canadian arts and letters. Scholars and the public alike regard her as a Canadian national treasure and the Canadian Encyclopedia describes her as a Canadian icon. She has been designated a National Historic Person and had a Minor planet 5688 Kleewyck named after her anglicized native name. As one scholar in her 2014 book on Carr, put it, "we love her and she continues to speak to us".Emily Carr lived most of her life in the city in which she was born and died, Victoria, British Columbia.

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