Emily Carr, Dark Forest (circa 1935), oil on canvas, 13.75" x 18"

Emily Carr was Canada’s most famous female painter when she died in 1945 at the age of 74, but her hard-won reputation followed decades of obscurity and arrived only when she was in her 60s.

As a young woman, Victoria-born Carr had often traveled British Columbia’s northwest coast, visiting native villages and sketching ancient totem poles. Over time she found a new theme in the stillness of the primeval forest, which she once described as “perfectly ordered disorder designed with a helter-skelter magnificence.”

Despite suffering a lifetime of self-doubt and insecurity, Carr eventually confronted her inner demons. She began painting in dark new forms and rhythms, capturing the ineffable qualities of her forests by developing and mastering a unique, energetic language with her brushes.

Dark Forest was painted around 1935, at the pinnacle of Carr’s career and at the height of her creative powers. Originally acquired by Douglas Udell Gallery in Edmonton from a couple in Paris, through a mutual contact in New York, it is significant for being an oil on canvas and for being in its original condition.

“Many people consider that Emily Carr’s most universal works were painted in the later part of her life,” says gallery owner Douglas Udell, who has sold the painting to a private collector. “Dark Forest fits right in with that period.”