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Sunlight in the Forest

Emily Carr

BIRTH YEAR 1871
BIRTH PLACE Victoria, British Columbia
DEATH YEAR 1945
DEATH PLACE Victoria, British Columbia

How would you depict sunlight in the forest? In 1912, the year this work was completed, Emily Carr had recently returned to British Columbia from France where she had been studying post-impressionist and fauvist developments in painting. Here we see the influence of the modernist techniques she had encountered—much to Vancouver’s shock—with her use of bold colors and visible brush strokes in the trees and grass of this expressive landscape.

MEDIUM Oil on linen
DATE c. 1912
DIMENSIONS 55.9cm x 43.5cm x 2.2cm
ACCESSION NUMBER FAC 0109
CREDIT LINE Firestone Collection of Canadian Art, the Ottawa Art Gallery. Donated to the City of Ottawa by the Ontario Heritage Foundation
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
A colourful painting of trees in a forest clearing. In the foreground is a gnarled tree trunk bent towards the right, its twisted limbs reach back into the centre, and up out of the image. Just beyond is the straight vertical trunk of another tree. In the background is an evergreen forest and blue sky.

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