Emily Carr's Lilies

When one thinks of the paintings of Emily Carr it's usually our coastal forest on a grand scale that comes to mind, towering trees or totems spiraling into the sky. But Emily Carr loved the small things too and some of her favorites were these lovely spring flowers, the Giant White Fawn Lilies. She painted them too, and there's a story attached to the painting, one of her early works.

Emily Carr’s sisters had some issues with her art. Too modern. But there was one painting of hers that big sister Elizabeth Carr loved. Wild Lilies, likely painted in the early 1890s when Emily was at art school in San Francisco, was a great favourite of hers.

“Elizabeth absolutely loved this painting and Emily felt like it was the only time she ever got praise from one of her sisters over her paintings,” says Mary Jo Hughes, chief curator of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV).

Elizabeth – or Lizzie – became ill with breast cancer and in her dying days, was cared for by the Sisters of St. Ann at St. Joseph’s Hospital. After her death in 1936, Emily gave the sisters the painting in gratitude for the care her sister had received.

From "The Globe and Mail" (Marsha Lederman)

The Sisters of St. Ann recently donated the painting to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.