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WOODS, Emily Henrietta
- Born
- Parsontown, Ireland, 1852
- Died
- Victoria, British Columbia, 1916
- Biography synopsis
- In 1865 the Woods family moved to Victoria where Emily attended Angela College, a private Anglican school. She later taught drawing and watercolours at the college while Emily Carr was a student; she also taught art at local elementary schools. Wood's principal painting interest was botany; throughout her life she dedicated her time to painting plants, using both scientific and common names, and sometimes included notes on the First Nations uses of plants alongside her illustrations. She produced over 200 watercolours of flowers, trees as well as fifty landscapes. Four albums of these works are housed in the BC Archives. They were published in 2005 alongside a collection of Emily Carr’s writings in "Wild Flowers." In 1882, Woods contributed to the Souvenir of Victoria, an album of pressed flower arrangements, photographs, and watercolours gifted to Princess Louise by local women artists. In 1884, Woods won first prize at the annual provincial exhibition. The Pouce Coupe Museum in northern British Columbia also holds a collection of Woods’ watercolours.
- Media used
- Drawing
- Watercolour
- Education
- Angela College, Victoria
- File & Archive locations
- British Columbia Archives
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- "Emily Henrietta Woods." The Watercolour World. England; Wales: Watercolour World, 2022
http://www.watercolourworld.org/artist/emily-henrietta-woods - “Admirable Women.” Daily Colonist. 11 Mar. 1915
- Finlay, K.A. and Shea, T.. "A Woman's Place" Art and the Role of Women in the Cultural Formation of Victoria B.C. 1850s-1920s Victoria, B.C.: Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, University of Victoria, 2004
- Huneault, Kristina. I'm Not Myself at All: Women, Art, and Subjectivity in Canada Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018
- Layland, Michael. In Nature’s Realm: Early Naturalists Explore Vancouver Island. Toronto: TouchWood Editions, 2019
- Shea, Tusa. "Beyond Recollection: The Early Art Education of Emily Carr" British Columbia Historical News British Columbia: vol.35, no.4, Fall 2002: 1-6.
http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/bchf/bchn_2002_fall.pdf - Tippett, Maria and Douglas Cole. From Desolation to Splendour: Changing Perceptions of the British Columbia Landscape Toronto: Clarke, Irwin and Company Ltd, 1977
- Ursi, Marco. “Carr Manuscript Springs to Life with Publication of Wild Flowers: [Final Edition].” Times Colonist. 13 July 2006
Writings by- Carr, Emily, illustrated by Emily Henrietta Woods. Wild Flowers. Victoria, B.C.: Royal B.C. Museum, 2006
