The Audain Art Museum has added a new Emily Carr painting to its permanent collection.
Street, Alert Bay, painted in 1912, was unveiled at the museum on Wednesday, Dec. 18. The Audain Foundation recently purchased the piece for more than $2.4 million from an auction house in Toronto.
The oil painting employs "brilliant colours and expressive details" and depicts a scene from the Kwakwaka'wakw community, the museum said in a release. It's based on a 1909 watercolour Carr painted before her career-altering trip to France from 1910 to 1911.
"When she got back from France she looked to an earlier watercolour and then she totally reworked it," says Curtis Collins, director and chief curator at the museum. "The things you can notice most obviously are a much brighter palate—that's one thing she brings back from France—and she's more concerned with shape and line and form, as opposed to ... the British watercolour tradition, sombre tones, recording a scene. In her later work, she's more trying to evoke an emotional response, if you will, in the subject matter."
The acquisition comes as the museum's special exhibit, Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing - French Modernism and the West Coast, is heading into its final weeks.
The show examined Carr's trip to France and the impact it had on her work. While it wraps up on Jan. 19, Street, Alert Bay helps launch the museum "to the same stature as the National Gallery of Canada or the Vancouver Art Gallery with regard to the quality of our Emily Carr collection," Collins says.
"We're very grateful to the Audain Foundation because we've been privileged to take in a number of new works, courtesy of the foundation," he adds. "The collection is building and if someone wants to come through the permanent collection tomorrow, they will notice a bunch of new works... The museum is evolving and changing. It's great for repeat visitors. There's always something new to see."
