Provenance

Heffel auction, May 2007, lot #76

Private collection

Emily Carr in Saint-Efflam, June-August 1911

In May, Carr took a short break for one last vacation with her sister, this time to Rouen, before Alice returned home to Victoria. In June, Bridget and Harry Gibbs moved their base and Emily went with them, to the tiny village of Saint-Efflam on the Brittany coast, a congregation of houses and hotels on a wide, sandy beach. This would be her home for the next three months. She describes a typical day in her new setting: The Gibbs had an apartment I was at the little hotel. My board was 5 francs per day. It was off season. The new environment set me off on a new tack.
I was in the fields at 8 in the morning, worked till twelve noon when a great 8 course meal was served in the hotel. Goodness how those French people ate…. I did a stretch between 3 and five o’clock lay on the moss and looked up at the treetops for an hour ate supper and did an evening sketch getting home at dark. Mr. Gibb came to the woods or fields & gave me a lesson in the afternoon. He also came to the hotel twice a week and criticized the work I had done between lessons. He took a great interest in my work and was a splendid & inspiring critic.

Carr loved her routine at Saint-Efflam. She explored by foot, carrying an easel, art board, and paints. Every day she climbed the hill behind her hotel, crossed the railway track, and found rolling hills, cultivated fields, stone cottages, and peasants engaged in their daily work. She was surrounded by splendid subject-matter in every direction, as well as curious locals with whom she (and her parrot) engaged, albeit without knowledge of Breton or French. Carr was proud of the relationships she forged with local women and children. Despite not speaking the language, her happy demeanour and respect for their lives and lifestyles communicated trust and she was given entrée into cottages and permitted to paint their modest holdings. At almost forty years of age, Carr revelled in her independence and in the warm summer days that enabled long hours of sketching.