Born in 1886, Kiakshuk was in his sixties when he began carving. Already in his seventies when he took up drawing, he enjoyed the activity tremendously and turned out to be an excellent draughtsman; his graphite drawings are filled with carefully outlined and meticulously shaded figures and scenes. Compared to the “sketchier” drawings of Parr (see previous Lot 85), Kiakshuk’s compositions are quite naturalistic, distinctly narrative, and more structured. Kiakshuk clearly strove to document many aspects of traditional life on the land. This exemplary drawing depicts seven hunters in all: two pulling their walrus and seal catch home; one collecting a trapped fox; two flensing a seal; and a father and son either heading out to a hunt or heading home from an apparently unsuccessful one.

References: For fine examples of drawings by Kiakshuk, see Marion E. Jackson and Judith M. Nasby, Contemporary Inuit Drawings, (Guelph: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1987), cats. 16-17; Gerald McMaster, ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), pp. 164-165.