This simple yet extraordinarily refined small sculpture is reminiscent of a couple of very early works in prominent collections: an exquisite Seated Woman c. 1951 in the National Gallery collection; and Woman with Ivory Face from 1949 in the TD Bank Collection (see references for these and other works that are interesting comparisons). All of these fine sculptures have inlaid faces, in either ivory or stone, with some similarly shaped; at least one is attributed to the artist Elijassiapik.

It’s fun to try to attach an artist’s name to an early carving, especially when it is one as lovely as this one. It would be nice to know whether it was actually carved by Elijassiapik but it’s not essential. It is more important to recognize a treasure when you find one – and this is a treasure. Purchased at the first or second Guild exhibition in Montreal in 1949 or 1950, this sculpture exhibits the perfect blend of folk art and high art aesthetics that the best early Inuit works possess. Quite simple in form, it is “naïve” in the best sense of the word: unaffected, innocent, and guileless – yet it is undeniably elegant. It begs to be held in the hand and caressed. But perhaps the most exceptional thing about it is the woman’s face – not just its lovely, delicate features but its shape, and the subtle geometry of its placement in the frame of the amautiq hood.

References: For Seated Woman (NGC) see Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998), fig. 24. For Woman with Ivory Face (TD) see TD Bank, The Eskimo Art Collection of the Toronto-Dominion Bank (Toronto: TD Bank, 1972), cat. 66. For an Inukjuak Standing Woman from 1953/54 in the WAG collection, larger but likewise elegant, see George Swinton, Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1972/92), fig. 127, also illustrated in Darlene Coward Wight, Early Masters: Inuit Sculpture 1949-1955 (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2006), p. 100. For an elegant Seated Man formerly in the Robertson Collection see Jean Blodgett, Selections from the John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Sculpture (Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 1986), cat. 41. For a Mother and Child with Kudlik in the Klamer Collection at the AGO see Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways: Selections from the Klamer Family Collection of Inuit Art (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1983), cat. 116. All of these fine sculptures have inlaid faces, in either ivory or stone, with some similarly shaped; at least one is attributed to the artist Elijassiapik.