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Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher: Portrait of Emily Carr’s friend

If Emily Carr is the patron saint of West Coast painting, then Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher was the one who brought her miracles before the church.

If Emily Carr is the patron saint of West Coast painting, then Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher was the one who brought her miracles before the church.

But while Carr’s friend and sketching partner is already recognized for helping build Carr’s legacy, as the author of the first book-length appreciation of her work, a new book seeks to turn the spotlight around.

The Life and Art of Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher launches today at 8 p.m. at the Victoria College of Art.

And according to Mona Fertig, who heads Saltspring Island-based Mother Tongue Publishing, it will show Hembroff-Schleicher in a new light.

“[The public] knows a bit about her as documenter of Emily Carr, as her good friend and as a writer. But they don’t know her as an artist,” Fertig said. “It’s a very Victoria story and very key for our art history.”

Author Christina Johnson-Dean said she highlighted Hembroff-Schleicher’s “three careers.”

Her first was as an artist and painter, having studied in California and Paris, earning awards and spots in professional shows.

Her second was as a civil servant; during the Second World War, she worked as a German translator for POW correspondence in Ottawa.

And finally, she worked as a researcher and writer, which included writing M.E.: A Portrayal of Emily Carr (1969) and Emily Carr: The Untold Story (1978).

Despite a 30-year age gap and many differences, Carr and Hembroff-Schleicher were fast friends.

Carr first invited the younger woman to her home in 1930, after reading about her in the society pages of the local newspaper. The ever-stylish Hembroff-Schleicher wore her best Paris frock to the meeting. But according to Johnson-Dean, she was surprised by the person who answered the door.

“She was pretty amazed that there was this boarding house, and who answers the door but a dumpy woman in a housecoat with all these dogs jumping and barking at her,” Johnson-Dean said.

And while their artistic styles were different, they encouraged each other to try new things.

“They’re very different,” Johnson-Dean said. “Emily at the time had really turned to landscape and Edythe went on many sketching and camping trips with her. But Edythe loved, as she said, ‘pulsating flesh.’ ”

The Life and Art of Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher is the sixth book in a series called The Unheralded Artists of B.C.

Fertig said she hopes to shed light on some of the province’s lesser-known artists in the series, which also includes Victoria-based artist Ina D.D. Uhthoff.

She attributes their obscurity to a highly politicized art world that only recognized those who made it into the inner circle.

“The artists who worked the system got recognition in the system, and those who didn’t disappeared from view,” she said.

The series grew from Fertig’s 14 years working on a book about her father George Fertig, who is the third unheralded artist in the series.

In the course of her research, Fertig said she encountered many other stories, resources and art that she wanted to reintroduce to the public.

Artists in the series worked between 1900 and 1960 and she said she hopes to collect evidence of their work before it disappears into attics and garages to be forgotten.

“I thought it was important to begin the documentation, because everything is disappearing,” she said. “So many have died, so we’re trying to capture some of these artists before the last witnesses disappear.”

asmart@timescolonist.com