In 1961, an accident ended Parr’s career as a hunter. He was sixty-eight when Terry Ryan encouraged him to begin drawing, an unlikely turn that opened into an astonishing late career. Though it lasted only a few years, he produced nearly two thousand works, first in pencil and later in felt-tip marker and coloured pencil. His works generally feature scenes from the hunt and serve as a visual record of a rapidly vanishing way of life. In this drawing, two men, perhaps father and son, pursue a seal, their faithful dogs forming a tight circle around a pup cut off from its mother. Above, a goose takes flight, while at the base of the image a massive polar bear and walrus anchor the composition. All together they testify to Parr’s understanding of the deep interconnection between Inuit life and the animals of air, land, and sea.

MBL