Henry Evaluardjuk was born in Igloolik and lived a traditional camp life in the Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay area for many of the following years until 1959, when he was hospitalized for tuberculosis at the Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton. He had continued to carve at the hospital, and when Evaluardjuk and his family settled in Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) upon his release from treatment, he was invited by Peter Murdoch to become supervisor of the local arts program for returning patients.

Evaluardjuk probably began carving in the late 1940s. His subject matter was quite varied well into the 1960s, and included wildlife, several fine portrait heads, and the superb whale bone Mother and Child of 1969 and Standing Bear of 1974 (Walker’s May 2012, Lots 25 and 47). Evaluardjuk’s sensitive depictions of animals, particularly “Henry bears,” became so popular in the 1970s that he devoted most of his time to wildlife sculpture after that. Evaluardjuk and Pauta Saila of Cape Dorset are considered to be the two greatest carvers of polar bears.

This fine sculpture is one of the artist’s largest depictions of the animal. But interestingly, it is probably a portrait of a young bear, a cub or perhaps an adolescent. The bear’s proportions and also its charming inquisitive air suggest that this is not yet a sleek adult hunter-bear but rather a playful, curious child. It’s a delightful work that reveals Evaluardjuk’s intimate knowledge of polar bears from a slightly different perspective.

References: For a similarly large, fine example of a bear by the artist see Walker’s Auctions, November 2017, Lot 91.