The British Columbia wilderness and the First Nations culture formed the two great themes of Emily Carr's work. Through her landscapes and haunting depictions of totems, she is deservedly considered the premier painter of Canada's Pacific coast. After training in San Francisco and Europe, Carr began her career in Vancouver, producing an impressive body of First Nations images in the year 1912. After a prolonged period of relative inactivity, at the age of 56 she returned to northern British Columbia and began painting the canvases for which she is most noted.