Acquired by C.J.G. Molson at what was likely one of the early exhibitions at La Guilde in Montreal, this work embodies the finest qualities of early commercial Inuit art: sincere and guileless, yet rendered with undeniable grace and sophistication.

The delicate ivory face of this woman, marked with tunnitt (facial tattoos) and touched with a faint smile, sits slightly off centre within the broad frame of her hood. Her amuatiq is carved with sensitivity, while the surface is enlivened by rows of tiny drilled dots representing intricate beadwork. At just over three inches tall, she beckons the viewer’s touch, her scale asking to be turned over in the palm, to be studied, felt, and admired.

Leafing through Early Masters, Swinton, and other publications by authorities on Inuit art, several possibilities surface as potential authors of this work. However, while the instinct to assign an artist’s name is natural and sometimes rewarding, it is not a necessity. What matters most is recognizing something rare and remarkable when one sees it. And this is a rare and remarkable little gem.

ND

References: This work in scale and charm recalls the delightful in our 12 July 2020 sale, Lot 2, which was also illustrated in George Swinton, Eskimo Sculpture, (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965), p. 94; George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit, (Toronto, M&S, 1972/92), fig. 185. For a somewhat comparable small Inukjuak work from the period, see Woman, c. 1950, attributed to Pilipusi Novalinga (brother of Akeeaktashuk), illustrated in George Swinton (1972/92), fig. 314, and Early Masters, p. 42. For an ivory carving from Salluit, c. 1956, with similarly incised decorative detailing, see Swinton, (1972/92), fig. 410, though identified as from Inukjuak in Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern (Toronto: AGO, 2010), p. 66.