Audain Art Museum adds early version of Emily Carr's War Canoes, Alert Bay

Emily Carr repainted the scene, War Canoes, Alert Bay, in a 1912 oil that is one of her most famous paintings.

Published Oct 16, 2024  •  Last updated 1 hour ago  •  3 minute read

The 1908 Emily Carr watercolour War Canoes, Alert Bay, will be in the collection of the Audain Art Museum in Whistler. sun

The Audain Art Museum has added a key Emily Carr painting to its collection: the original 1908 watercolour that was the model for one of her most famous paintings, War Canoes, Alert Bay, in 1912.

The 1912 version was painted in oil, and infused with the rich, vibrant colours of Fauvism style that she had recently discovered studying in France.

Michael Audain purchased 1912 War Canoes, Alert Bay, at a Heffel auction in 2000 for $1,018,750 — the first Carr to crack the million-dollar mark.

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It’s now in the permanent collection of the Audain museum. When the 1908 watercolour came up for auction at Heffel in May, Audain bought it for $871,250.

“I thought it was important to acquire both works,” said Audain. “I never thought I’d get an opportunity to acquire the watercolour for our museum in Whistler. But it came up at auction, and lo and behold the museum was able to acquire it.”

The two paintings, unveiled at the Heffel Gallery in Vancouver on Wednesday, will be displayed together at the Audain museum in Whistler starting Thursday.

The 1912 version of Emily Carr’s War Canoes, Alert Bay. Vancouver Sun

The 1908 painting was probably done live on the spot, what the French called “en plein air.”

“She was documenting life in Indigenous villages around the province at that time,” said Audain. “I guess she was enchanted with the scene. It’s a powerful scene — those canoes in those days were pretty big.

“In a sense they’ve become the subject of the painting, don’t they? It’s not the landscape, it’s really the canoes in the landscape.”

The 1912 version is much more colourful and dramatic.

“What I am most fascinated about is the use of colour in the oil painting,” said Audain. “How she started to incorporate colours that she’d encountered (in France), perhaps in the Seine valley, in a scene in British Columbia.”

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“When comparing the two paintings side-by-side, a dramatic shift in her artistic perspective is immediately evident,” said the museum’s director and chief curator, Curtis Collins.

“Bringing together these two magnificent works by Emily Carr at the Audain Art Museum provides an essential context for better understanding the development of modern art in Canada.”

The 1908 version has been in private collections, but has been on display at several exhibitions of Carr’s work.

In a news release, the museum describes it as “a scene with three dugout canoes in the foreground, each bearing distinctive Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw-inspired imagery.”

“Capturing the often-sombre light of the Northwest Coast, the painting conveys the quiet stillness of a deserted shoreline, with a hillside and trees in the background.”

The 1912 version, on the other hand, was painted with what the museum called a “ ‘new way of seeing’ she had cultivated in France.”

“Her shift to an expressive use of vivid colour and bold brushwork was unconventional for its time,” said the release, “filled with a light and dynamism not apparent in her early watercolours.”

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There’s a story that goes along with the purchase of the 1912 War Canoes, Alert Bay. Audain said there was another determined bidder, Roy Thomson, who was widely described as Canada’s richest man at the time.

Luckily for Audain, Thomson was in Toronto, the auction was in Vancouver.

“By the time the sale came up in Vancouver, he had gone to sleep and his dealer didn’t dare wake him” to see if he wanted to up his bid, Audain said with a laugh. “We had a nice note from him afterwards.”

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