WHAT LIES BENEATH
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"Kitseukla" -before
Emily Carr, "Kitseukla," 1912, oil on canvas. 126.6 x 98.6 cm, Vancouver Art Gallery.
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"War Canoes, Alert Bay"
Emily Carr, "War Canoes, Alert Bay," 1912, oil on canvas. 63.2 x 80 cm. Private Collection.
3 of 12
"War Canoes, Alert Bay"
Emily Carr, "War Canoes, Alert Bay," 1912, oil on canvas. 63.2 x 80 cm. Private Collection.
4 of 12
"War Canoes, Alert Bay"
Emily Carr, "War Canoes, Alert Bay," 1912, oil on canvas. 63.2 x 80 cm. Private Collection.
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"War Canoes, Alert Bay"
Emily Carr, "War Canoes, Alert Bay," 1912, oil on canvas. 63.2 x 80 cm. Private Collection.
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"Old Village Guastums (Gwayasdums), British Columbia,"
Emily Carr, "Old Village Guastums (Gwayasdums), British Columbia," 1912, oil on multi-fibre board, 63.5 x 96.5 cm, Vancouver Art Gallery.
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"Old Village Guastums (Gwayasdums), British Columbia,"
Emily Carr, "Old Village Guastums (Gwayasdums), British Columbia," 1912, oil on multi-fibre board, 63.5 x 96.5 cm, Vancouver Art Gallery.
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"Arbutus Tree (front)"
Emily Carr, "Arbutus Tree (front)," circa 1920-1923.
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"Portrait (verso)"
Emily Carr, "Portrait (verso)," circa 1890-1894, oil on canvas. Private Collection.
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"Portrait (verso)"
Emily Carr, "Portrait (front)," circa 1890-1894, oil on canvas. Private Collection.
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"Kitseukla" -after
Emily Carr, "Kitseukla," 1912, oil on canvas. 126.6 x 98.6 cm, Vancouver Art Gallery.
12 of 12
"Kitseukla" -before
Emily Carr, "Kitseukla," 1912, oil on canvas. 126.6 x 98.6 cm, Vancouver Art Gallery.
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Conservator of more than 40 of Emily Carr’s works on canvas and paper, Cheryle Harrison of Conserv-Arte in Vancouver has mastered the profession of retrieving the original colour and images of historic paintings, while also maintaining a respect for the artists’ intentions. She has a background in art history, and a post-graduate degree from South East Conservation Centre, a private conservation facility in England, with additional conservation training in England, Denmark, Italy, and North America. Among many other commissions, she has conserved the work of Canadian painters including the Group of Seven, Jack Shadbolt, E.J. Hughes, and is responsible for caring for the historic murals that line the walls of the British Columbia Legislature Building in Victoria. In her own words, Harrison discusses the Carr projects and the work that went into preparing a few of Carr’s paintings for the touring exhibition that opens at the Vancouver Art Gallery this fall.
By Cheryle Harrison
Totem Poles
I have taken care of over 40 of Emily Carr’s paintings, and I am always learning something new. As I treated this piece, I found areas of overpaint and previous repairs. The old repairs were stabilized, and the overpaint was removed to uncover areas of the underlying and undamaged original painting. There were also cracks that were very minor, so I consolidated them with adhesive to stabilize those areas.As I cleaned, I could see a change in the colours. I began to see Emily’s composition and how the objects on the canvas related to each other. This is a complicated and busy composition where every element has value, balance, and rhythm. There is a brilliant halo of light in the sky that balances with a light halo-shaped area at the centre of the village at the lower portion of the composition. The accumulated dirt and grime changes a painting’s colour values, hides the details, and obscures the artist’s painting style. After the cleaning, you can sense the totems reaching up toward the heavens, which was not as visually powerful before the conservation treatment. You can also see beautiful layers of colour and her lively brushstrokes. I was able to see where one brushstroke preceded another, or came after another one, lending me a unique view into Emily Carr’s painting process and creative voice.
Portrait and Arbutus Tree
Emily’s paint was just a standard artist oil paint, and she was known to thin it down with benzene. She also worked in oil paint on paper, which she was encouraged to glue to panels so it would have an appearance of being “more” of an artwork. Her canvases are generally of adequate quality, and have endured well. Emily used what she had, and she would sometimes re-use materials by painting over another image or turning a canvas over and re-stretching it to paint a double-sided piece.This painting of a young woman was hidden on the back of an outdoor scene. Arbutus Tree was a later piece, painted around 1923. This scene has the brilliance of colour found in her earlier work, though we can see that she’s developing toward her more emotional landscape painting. It is believed that the portrait on the verso side was likely done around the period of her early studies in San Francisco. When the portrait was first rediscovered, the image had been painted over with dark paint to obscure the woman. As I removed the dark paint to uncover the portrait, I could see the movement and rhythm in the painting technique. There has been a considerable amount of debate as to whether this painting is a self-portrait, or a portrait of her sister, Elizabeth. A number of people have commented that Emily Carr was not as attractive as the woman seen in this portrait. But, I disagree. Look at her earlier photographs, she was lovely.
Old Village Guastums
On this one, I found Emily’s fingerprints along the top edge of the painting. Imagine, there she was, working away, and she must have picked up the painting while it was still wet, leaving her prints. I do most of my work under magnification, and when looking closely I could see the shape and lines of her fingerprints in the colours she was using.
War Canoes, Alert Bay
This Emily Carr project gained notoriety — it was the first of her artworks to sell for over a million dollars. For me, it marked the time when the country again opened its eyes to look at her work and its place in Canadian art history. Sensitive cleaning considers the condition of the piece, and the priority is always for the artwork’s safety. Again, look at the difference it made when it was cleaned. The painting evolves toward what it was originally. Cleaning is a very thoughtful, decisive process. Often on one painting, I will work in different areas at once, keeping an overall visual balance of the composition, studying the changes, and observing the individual voice of the artwork. Emily’s sense of layering colour is not just what you see on the uppermost surface. It includes the effect of thoughtfully placed underlying colours emanating through to the surface to create the final painted image. Her brushstrokes express movement and emotion. She had her earlier traditional training in painting techniques, and Emily learned from the Impressionists and Fauvists — the power of placing colours next to each other, understanding the placement of colours within a composition, and using colour to shape an object. Emily Carr’s studies were used to find her own way of painting and expressing what she referred to as the emotions of west coast landscape. People often say that her later work is too dark, but that is actually not true. Emily Carr’s paintings represent the country we live in. Once you are into the woods, look in those dark places. There is always colour there.