London Times: The Boardinghouse Pictures of Emily Carr

Emily Carr at St. Ives, December 1901, John Douglas photograph, courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives

The painter Emily Carr's training at the California School of Design in San Francisco was interrupted during the 1892–93 depression when she was called home to help support her family. Back in Victoria, British Columbia, with four overly protective older sisters, Carr was stifled. She wanted to study art in Paris but lacked confidence in her talent. Worrying that her work was tame and fussy, she longed to encounter the "new art" of Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Cézanne, but the idea of going to Paris intimidated her. She was not ready to compete in Europe's artistic epicenter. Her family shared her doubts and concerns; Paris was out of the question. With contacts from home who were either living or traveling in England, London was a safer, more sensible choice.

In August 1899, twenty-eight-year-old Emily Carr boarded the SS Cambroman in Montreal, paying for her $50 ticket with money she had saved teaching art to children in a converted cow barn behind the family house. During the ten-day ocean voyage, she was seasick and had to rely on the ship's doctor and strangers for care and company. After an arduous train journey from Liverpool to London, she arrived at the Westminster School of Art, only to find it closed for summer break. Filling her days with sightseeing on the city's omnibuses, she eventually discovered the cool air of the sanctuary of St. Paul's Cathedral, the wide lawns and zoo in Kew Gardens, and swirling flocks of pigeons at Guildhall. Family friends took her canoeing on the Thames, to performances at the city's many theaters, and through the halls of the National Gallery. Her insecurity as a foreigner sometimes got the best of her—"the writhe of humanity" made her feel anonymous—yet seeing so much art allowed her to begin to develop her aesthetic judgement.

Emily's feelings of inferiority did not diminish when she started classes. She considered her work uneven and unimaginative, and no one at the school tried to dissuade her. Her fellow classmates seemed stand-offish. She emphasized rather than diminished her differences, playing a colonial Canadian character shaped by a wild, untamed landscape on the edge of the empire. Once she dropped the persona, though, she settled in with her peers and spent hours outside the classroom arguing about art, creativity, and ambition.

Role models did not exist to help Emily deal with her growing conflict over being a woman artist. Since childhood in buttoned-up British Columbia, she had resented that being female meant obeying countless rules while boys had all the fun. Still, she expected to someday fall

Admiration of a Head-Piece, Emily Carr, 1901, watercolor and ink, courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives

in love, marry, and have a family. When two opportunities presented themselves, she turned down both suitors, rejecting the expected Victorian role of wife and mother, which most of her friends in Victoria had accepted as their vocation.

Returning Late Sunday Night, Emily Carr, 1901, watercolor and ink, courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives

In London, Emily struggled with big-city living, bouncing from one unsatisfactory boardinghouse to another until she finally settled into Mrs. Dodd's establishment. Fifty-two young women lived at Mrs.

Packing for Home, Emily Carr, 1901, watercolor and ink, courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives

Dodd's, sleeping five to a room, dormitory-style. Each had a six-foot bunk behind a flimsy red curtain, and, if she could afford to pay extra, a cupboard to accommodate her few necessities. Common areas held a washstand, ironing board, and mirror. Despite occasional feuds over chores, open or closed windows, noise, and the lack of privacy, Emily...