Painter and writer Emily Carr was born on this day in 1871 in Victoria, BC. Carr, orphaned in her teens, was influenced by European impressionism, Fauvism, and cubism. Studied in the US, England and France before returning to Victoria in 1911 to paint. She supported herself by teaching art and running a boarding house. She spent summers on the Queen Charlottes, grafting her own postimpressionist style onto native culture and coastal landscapes, with swirling forms and using intense greens, blues and browns. In 1927 she was invited to exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. She wrote a trilogy of memoirs: Klee Wyck (1941), about her contacts with Aboriginal culture; The Book of Small (1942) on her childhood in Victoria (the cover of the first British edition is seen below); and The House of All Sorts (1944) about her career as a landlady. She also wrote a complete autobiography called Growing Pains (1946). She died in Victoria in March 2, 1945. Her journal, Hundreds and Thousands (1966) was published after her death.

The Fisher honours the birth of this great Canadian by showcasing Emily Carr-related material from our collections.

On This Date (Dec. 13): Emilly Carr was born