PROVENANCE
Dominion Gallery, Montreal
James K. Nesbitt, Victoria
A Distinguished Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
James K. Nesbitt, “Emily Carr Collection Meets Old Bogyman,” Vancouver Sun, December 8, 1979, page E7

In 1912, Emily Carr, fresh from her studies in France, returned to northwestern British Columbia to paint the villages and totem poles of the Indigenous peoples. She visited Alert Bay, on Cormorant Island, and, father north, villages on the Skeena River and importantly Haida Gwaii, or as Carr knew it, the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The major shift that occurred in Carr’s work as a result of her studies in France was a new ability to confront her subjects directly within their environment. While we cannot know for certain whether Skidegate was painted on location, the swift and confident execution of the work suggests that she painted it on site rather than in her Vancouver studio. This direct confrontation with her subject matter is one of the singular aspects of Carr’s work depicting the Indigenous totem poles of the province. Carr, with the assistance of her Haida guides, Clara and William Russ, viewed these poles herself, and the studies from this period of her career reflect her personal encounters with the majestic poles of the region.

The watercolour Skidegate (Carr consistently misspelled the village name as “Skidigate”) is a striking image. Several houses, part of the Haida village, occupy the lower section of the composition. Carr has depicted two of the village’s inhabitants (presumably an adult and child) near the centre. Behind and around them are houses of the village and a commanding backdrop of quickly painted evergreens. At the left is Carr’s real subject, a soaring totem that abuts a Haida longhouse. At the bottom of the pole there is a massive human face and, at the top, a magnificent eagle figure. Carr’s decision to have the pole dominate the composition, even though it is placed acentrally, suggests that she valued and admired this striking cultural object. Our eyes are drawn immediately and forcefully up the pole to the imposing silhouette of the eagle against the open sky. Carr’s compositional choice brilliantly suggests both the importance and majesty of the pole.

This watercolour once belonged to the late journalist James Nesbitt, also from Victoria. In an article from the Vancouver Sun, dated December 8, 1979, Nesbitt wrote: “As to Emily Carr, there’s no greater fan of this lady than I. I think her paintings are great, and her writing, too.” He, as so many others have come to do, recognized the value and importance of Carr’s vision of the totems of the Indigenous peoples and the landscape of her native province.

We thank Ian M. Thom, Senior Curator—Historical at the Vancouver Art Gallery from 1988 to 2018, for contributing the above essay.

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