Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Emily Carr: Mother of Canada's Modern Art
Great art takes not only talent, but a creative vision to see the result in the mind's eye. If you were frustrated by a teacher, would you have the determination to keep on trying to excel? Emily Carr did. While it did not seem to help at the time, her reputation has now grown to almost epic proportions.
Emily Carr was born in Victoria, BC, on December 13, 1871. Her father, a successful merchant, was a stern but loving man. As the youngest of the five girls in the family, Emily became the favorite and was very close to her father.
Her talent for drawing became evident by the time she was eight. She took some drawing classes but had only one year of high school before her father and mother died. She never went back to school after that, but stayed at home.
Emily wanted to attend art school and at first was not allowed to go by her older sister. Determined to go, Emily got her other guardian, the family's lawyer, to okay the plan. She was soon attending the California School of Design in San Francisco. She studied there for three years.
Emily learned a lot but was disappointed with the narrowness of her classic art education. They did not study or explore the changing styles that were appearing in Europe.
