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Emily Carr

Indian War Canoe (Alert Bay)

Artist

Emily Carr
Victoria 1871 – Victoria 1945

Title

Indian War Canoe (Alert Bay)

Date

1912

Materials

Oil on cardboard

Dimensions

65 x 95.5 cm

Credits

Purchase, gift of A. Sidney Dawes, inv. 1948.995

Collection

Quebec and Canadian Art

Emily Carr had a keen interest in the life and ways of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast. Between 1907 and 1913, she visited many villages, bringing back more than two hundred sketches depicting their art and activities. In her works, she tried to grasp the spirit of their culture. This brightly coloured war canoe, executed in the summer of 1912, also recalls the Fauvist painting she had seen in France. Not until the exhibition Canadian West Coast Art: Native and Modern, in 1927-1928, did the isolated artist received her first major recognition, and her meeting with artists from the East, particularly Lawren Harris, launched her career.

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