Emily Carr's oil painting Le Paysage has been exhibited only twice in its 106-year history – most notably at the prestigious Salon d'Automne in Paris. Now, the work is headed for permanent exhibition, purchased by the B.C. collector Michael Audain for his Whistler museum.
Carr, who was born in Victoria and spent most of her life there, painted the work while studying in France in 1911. It was one of two works of hers accepted at that year's Salon (the other, Autumn in France, is owned by the National Gallery of Canada), exhibited alongside work by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse and another Canadian, J.W. Morrice.
"The salon was the epitome of art exhibitions at the time and this is putting her on the world stage," says Darrin Martens, the Audain Art Museum's chief curator. "I believe that that was a huge confidence builder for her."
Le Paysage is bursting with bold brush strokes and vibrant colours; a foreshadowing of the important work she would begin making in B.C. the following year. On the back, a label in Carr's handwriting reads, in part, "exhibited in Paris."
Le Paysage was sent to Max Stern's Dominion Gallery in Montreal and has been in private hands since, exhibited only at the National Gallery in 1990. It will be the 27th Carr work of Audain's to be on permanent display at his museum (the 26th was a recently acquired French watercolour). Visitors can see Le Paysage beginning Wednesday.
"Any museum in the country would be happy to have this," says Audain, whose family foundation paid just under $1-million for the work. "But the collector kindly offered it to us."