Carr's most famous work

 

"Native art influenced the surrealists."
- Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Totem Walk at Sitka (1917)

"How I loathed London."

- Emily Carr who studied there and was broken there

totem

In 1899, at the age of 28, Emily Carr went to England to study art. She worked hard but was often ill and felt out of place. The stress became too much for her. She suffered a nervous breakdown and spent eighteen months in a sanitorium. Her great hope of becoming a painter of note fell apart. She was defeated; she became a housekeeper. Lawren Harris introduced her to the Group of Seven's work and became her mentor; at 57 she was reawakened. She published her first book Klee Wyck, which earned her the Governor General's Award at the age of 70.

- excerpts from a Bio episode

An earlier reference to Harris on this blog here.