As mentioned in lot 36, there has often been a temptation to misattribute wonderful early works from Kinngait to Niviaqsi, and one might feel the same tugging inclination here. The compressed, nearly cylindrical arrangement of the bodies could certainly suggest his hand. Yet, to our eye, the weight of evidence points more convincingly to another artist: a rare stone carving by Pudlat Pootoogook.

Pudlat was the brother of Kananginak, Eegyvudluk, and Paulassie, and the husband of Sharni. Unlike his family members, however, Pudlat was far less prolific. His contribution to the Dorset print release amounts to just four works in 1964/65 and only three carvings are firmly attributed to him. Two of these are particularly relevant in considering the present mother and child.

The first comparison can be made with a seated mother and child in Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec (1980), cat. 73. There, as in the present carving, the two figures are pressed into a compact and unified form, their bodies sharing mass rather than emphasizing separation. The breasts are not modeled in the round but appear as shallow ovals raised just enough to register against the plane of the chest. The hands, conceived as mitten-like extensions, cling directly to the torso with weight but with deliberately little articulation. The faces in both works are shaped as circular planes where the features are pared to essentials: the nose rendered as a single vertical ridge and the mouth indicated with a small cut that carries just enough modeling to suggest lips.

A second point of comparison is Houston’s Portrait of 1954, reproduced in Celebrating Inuit Art, 1948-1970 (1999, p. 118). In that carving, as in the present, the sockets of the eyes are not simply incised but carefully hollowed, then filled to indicate the whites and pupils. This treatment lends an unusual depth to the faces that are otherwise conceived within a schematic register.

Ultimately, however, questions of attribution, while important, should not obscure the quality of the work itself. This Kneeling Mother and Child stands as a refined example of early Kinggait carving and reminds us of the significance carried by works that survive in such small numbers.

ND