1871
Born December 13th in Victoria, B.C.
1889-1895
Attended the San Francisco School of Art, now The University of California School of Art.
1895
Returned to Victoria. Started drawing and painting classes for children in a converted barn loft.
1898
First visit to the Ucluelet Mission on Vancouver Island.
1898-1904
Summer of 1889 went to England; attended the Westminster School of Art in London. Spent a year in the art colony of St. Ives in Cornwall and six months at a school in Hertfordshire. Became ill in London and spent 18 months in a sanitarium.
1904
Returned to Victoria in October. Spent eight weeks in the Caribou en route back.
1905
Did a series of cartoons for Victoria paper "The Week".
1905-1910
To Vancouver late 1905; taught painting for children’s classes. Traveled to Native villages in the summers to record the villages and poles. Visited Sitka and Yukon in 1907; Lytton in 1910.
1910
Left for Paris in July; spent a week in Quebec. Attended the Academie Colarossi in Paris. Became ill and went to Sweden. Sketched and painted in Brittany in spring and summer.
1911
Returned to Victoria in November
1912
Went to Vancouver and opened studio at 1465 West Broadway. Held a studio show of her new work. In the summer, went on a major sketching trip to Kwakiutl villages on northern coast of Vancouver Island; Tsimshian villages, Skeena River; Haida villages, Queen Charlotte Islands.
1913
Returned to Victoria. Built her boarding house "The House of All Sorts" at 646 Simcoe Street, Victoria, B.C.
1915-1916
Came into contact with Marius Barbeau of The National Museum in Ottawa.
1917-1928
Financial difficulty; artistic isolation. Bred sheep, made pottery, and hooked rugs. Did little painting.
1921
Eric Brown of The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa became aware of her work through Marius Barbeau and Mortimer Lamb.
1926
Enrolled in correspondence writing course.
1927
Included in "Northwest Coast Art" exhibition arranged by the National Gallery. Went east for the opening. Met Lawren Harris and other members of the Group of Seven. Encouraged and inspired, began to paint again.
1928
Visited by Mark Tobey, began correspondence with Lawren Harris. Made several trips to sketch Native villages in the summer. Second phase of "Indian Paintings".
1930
Exhibited with the Group of Seven in Toronto. Her focus shifts from Native to landscape motifs.
1931
Traveled to Chicago and Toronto, again met with Lawren Harris. Sketching trips to Cordova Bay and Goldstream Flats.
1933
Purchased and old caravan trailer for painting trips. Made sketching trips to Goldstream Flats and Sooke Hills. From now on exhibiting more frequently in Canadian and occasional international exhibitions.
1935
Attempted unsuccessfully to start an art gallery (People’s Gallery). Sketching trip to Albert Head.
1936
Gave up her boarding house and moved to 316 Beckley Street.
1937
Had her first heart attack. Visited by noted critic Eric Newton.
1938
Began to spend more time writing.
1939
Several sketching trips near Victoria.
1940
Had a stroke. Moved to 218 St. Andrews Street, next door to her sister Alice.
1941
Published her first book, Klee Wyck, which won Governor General’s award for general literature.
1942
Emily Carr Trust founded with Lawren Harris, Ira Dilworth and William Newcombe appointed trustees. Book of Small published.
1943
Had another stroke. Although confined to bed, continued to paint and write. House of All sorts published.
1945
Died on March 2 at St. Mary’s Priory in Victoria.
1965
The Emily Carr Trust Collection was officially transferred to The Vancouver Art Gallery.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
1909
B.C. Society of Fine Arts
1911
Grand Palais, Paris
1912
Studio exhibition, Vancouver
1913
Drummond Hall, Vancouver
Island Arts and Crafts Society, Victoria
1924
Island Arts and Crafts Society, Victoria
Seattle Fine Arts Society
1925
Seattle Fine Arts Society
1927
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
1928
Island Arts and Crafts Society, Victoria
National Gallery of Canada
1929
Ontario Society of Artists, Toronto
1930
Crystal Gardens Gallery, Victoria
National Gallery of Canada
Seattle Art Museum
Art Gallery of Toronto
Art Institute if Seattle
1931
National Gallery of Canada
Art Gallery of Toronto
Baltimore Museum of Art
1932
National Gallery of Canada
International Art Centre of Roerich Museum, New York
Museum of Arts, Edmonton
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
1933
National Gallery of Canada
Art Gallery of Toronto
University of British Columbia Library, Vancouver
University of Alberta, Edmonton
Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1935
Studio exhibition, Victoria
Vancouver Art Gallery
Art Gallery of Toronto
1936
Lyceum Club, Toronto
University of Toronto
National Gallery of Canada
University of British Columbia Library, Vancouver
1937
Art Gallery of Toronto
Royal Institute Galleries, London, England
Exposition Internationale, Paris
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England
1938
University of British Columbia
Art Association of Montreal
National Gallery of Canada
Tate Gallery, London
1939
Vancouver Art Gallery
Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco
New York World’s Fair
1940
Vancouver Art Gallery
Art Gallery of Toronto
Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto
1941
Lyceum Club, Toronto
Vancouver Art Gallery
Museum of Arts, Edmonton
1942
National Gallery of Canada
Art Gallery of Toronto
B.C.Artists Annual, Vancouver Art Gallery
Art Association of Montreal
Calgary Exhibition
Museum of Art, San Francisco
1943
Seattle Art Museum
Art Gallery of Toronto
Vancouver Art Gallery
Art Association of Montreal
1944
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
Art Centre, Saskatoon
Yale University Gallery of Fine Arts, New Haven, Connecticut
1945
Art Gallery of Toronto
National Gallery, Ottawa
Art Gallery of Toronto
National Arts Club, New York
1949
Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
1950
Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
1967
Gallery of Theatre Arts, University of Waterloo
1969
Saskatoon Gallery and conservatory Corporation
1971
Vancouver Art Gallery
Musée des beaux-arts, Montreal
1972
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
BOOKS AND ARTICLES BY EMILY CARR
Modern and Indian Art of the West Coast. Supplement to the McGill News, June 1929, pp. 18-22.
Klee Wyck, with a forward by Ira Dilworth. 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, with a forward by Ira Dilworth, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1946.
The Heart of a Peacock, edited by Ira Dilworth, with line drawings by the author, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1953.
Pause: A Sketch Book, Toronto, Clarke, Irwin, 1953.
An Address, with an introduction by Ira Dilworth, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1955.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Crosby, Marcia, "Construction of the Imaginary Indian," Stan Douglas ed., Vancouver Anthology: The Institutional Politics of Art. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1991, pp. 267-91.
Linsley, Robert. "Landscape in Motion: Lawren Harris, Emily Carr and the Heterogeneous Modern Nation" Oxford Art Journal, 19:1, 1996.
Mastai, Judith. "Hysterical Histories: Emily Carr and the Canadian West" M.C. de Zegher ed. Inside the Visible. MIT Press, 1996.
Moray, Gerta. Northwest Coast Native Culture and the Early Indian Paintings of Emily Carr, 1899-1914. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Toronto, 1993.
O’Brian, John. "Iconic Carr" in Gasoline, Oil and Paper. Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 1995.
Walker, Stephanie K. This Woman in Particular: Contexts for the Biographical Image of Emily Carr. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 1996.
Wall, Jeff. "Traditions and Counter-Traditions in Vancouver Art" Cameras Indiscretes. Barcelona: Centre d’Art Santa Monica, 1992.
Watson, Scott. "Disfigured Nature" in Diana Augaitis ed. The Eye of Nature. Banff: Walter Phillips Gallery, 1991.