Two of UVic's Emily Carr paintings take centre stage in UK exhibit

April 24, 2015 - Tara Sharpe

Emily Carr’s talent and legacy are currently on display in a London art museum—in the first UK exhibit dedicated to the artist and west coast icon now dubbed “Canada’s very own van Gogh” by a British newspaper—including two works loaned from the collection of UVic Legacy Art Galleries.

Update: Exhibit 'returns' to Canada including UVic's "Windswept Trees" G&M (March 2015) and "Happiness" G&M (April 2015)

“From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia” has been well-received since its opening in Nov. 2014 in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, founded in 1811 in south London nearly a century before Carr travelled to the city herself in 1899. UVic is one of only two Canadian universities loaning its works for the exhibit which runs to March 8, 2015.

The two paintings, Happiness and Windswept Trees, were gifts to UVic from, respectively, local Limner artist Myfanwy Pavelic and benefactors Katharine and John Maltwood.

Happiness is also the featured image in the exhibit’s outdoor advertising campaign. Carr painted it in the late 1930s in the area of Goldstream Park and now her impression of young pines at the foot of a BC forest is making a mark in the midst of London’s busy streets. The painting is also significant for the touching story of how it came to UVic.

It was gifted to the university in 1990 by Pavelic, who had known Carr well and told her story of this painting to Jan Ross, curator of Emily Carr House, in an interview a few years ago.

Pavelic assisted the artist in her studio after Carr suffered a series of heart attacks. When Carr gave Pavelic the painting in thanks, Pavelic apparently said, “It’s one of your happiest paintings.” And it is as if she had read Carr’s mind—or the back of the piece. When Carr told Pavelic to turn the painting over, Pavelic saw what was already written on the back by the artist: Happiness.

The painting is requested frequently and has travelled with nearly every Carr exhibit in Canada.

UVic has some 19,000 art objects that support the teaching and research programs of the university. Various works are on display at any given time in the university’s free public gallery Legacy Downtown, throughout various satellite locations across campus and in dedicated gallery space on the lower level of the UVic library.