Emily headed to Paris, in early 1910, accompanied by her sister Alice. This was an extremely exciting time in the Paris art world. Emily lived very near Picasso, Braque and Matisse. Although she surely would have seen the Fauvist premiere exhibition at the Salon d'Automne in 1910, Emily did not become an active part of either the Fauvist or Cubist movements. Their influence did manage to reach her through the artists that she did meet, mostly British painters; what she saw, and the whole experimental atmosphere of Paris transformed both her and her art.
Emily studied at the Academie Colarossi, where men and women had classes together. Emily found the classes difficult as there were no women attending; not even a woman model.
"The French professor gabbled and gesticulated before my easel--passed on. I did not know whether he had praised or condemned." (Growing Pains p. 217.)
Emily studied here for only one month before she fell quite ill; suffering a breakdown brought on by self-doubt, frantic work to try to overcome the doubt, stress in general as well as the feeling of being stifled by the city. She spent three months in hospital before travelling to Sweden with Alice. "The Paris doctor said, as had the London one, I must keep out of big cities or die." (Growing Pains p. 217.)
In the Spring Emily and Alice returned to France, where Emily continued to paint, only this time she avoided Paris and stayed in small towns, and villages, tramping through the countryside to paint. Emily even had two paintings accepted and hung in the ninth Salon d'Automne of 1910. It was in France that Emily studied with Frances Hodgkins, the only woman painter under whom she would study.
In November, 1911, Emily returned to Victoria, after a total of 14 months in France.
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