Adapted from:
Irvin, Trish. "Emily Carr collection goes on sale"
The Ottawa Journal. September 7, 1978.
by Trish Irvin
Journal Reporter
Emily Carr once found it hard to give her paintings away, now a collection of 14 works valued in the thousands of dollars is going on display and sale at the Dominion Corinth Gallery in the Chateau Laurier, 8 p.m. Monday.
The paintings were collected over 40 years by Irene Clarke, who, following the death of her husband Bill in the 1950s, became president of the Toronto publishing firm of Clarke Irwin & Co. She was a long-time friend of the painter and encouraged her to become an author in later life, publishing her books.
Through the years, the Clarke family bought several of Carr's paintings of West Coast totems and forest scenes. Among the 14 works in the Ottawa gallery display, which were in Irene Clarke's personal collection before their recent sale to the gallery, are two of the only four surviving Indian portraits painted in watercolors by the British Columbia artist.
These are Susan and the Old Man and Emily and Alice Drinking, gallery owner Stanley Borenstein said Wednesday.
Many of the works have been loaned in the past for Canadian exhibitions, including a Toronto showing four years ago at the Royal Ontario Museum, and some are already promised to art galleries, he added.
Although Clarke has continued over the years to loan paintings from her Carr collection for display, she turned down several offers for its purchase until a recent serious heart attack. For her encouragement of Canadian artists and writers, she was presented with an Order of Merit last year.
The Carr works include some of Borenstein's favorites painted in the 1930s, he said. There is Bole of a Tree, Laughing Bear, Forest Trees and De' Sonoqua (Mother Goddess) that depicts an Indian legend on a totem pole. The works are "typical Carr forest scense full of her rhythm and slant."
With the exhibition of paintings in oil and watercolors are several documents and letters. The display continues until Sept. 17.
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