Emily Carr - Recognition

Recognition

Carr's life itself made her a "Canadian icon", according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. As well as being "an artist of stunning originality and strength", she was an exceptionally late bloomer, starting the work for which she is best known at the age of 57 (see Grandma Moses). Carr was also an artist who succeeded against the odds, living in an artistically unadventurous society, and working mostly in seclusion away from major art centers, thus making her "a darling of the women's movement" (see Georgia O'Keeffe, whom she met in 1930 in New York). Emily Carr brought the north to the south; the west to the east; glimpses of the ancient culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas to the most newly arrived Europeans on the continent.

On 12 February 1971 Canada Post issued a 6¢ stamp 'Emily Carr, painter, 1871-1945' designed by William Rueter based on Carr's Big Raven (1931), held by the Vancouver Art Gallery. On 7 May 1991 Canada Post issued a 50¢ stamp 'Forest, British Columbia, Emily Carr, 1931-1932' designed by Pierre-Yves Pelletier based on Forest, British Colombia (1931-1932), also from the Vancouver Art Gallery collection.