Qupirualu (sometimes known as Koperkualook) began carving in 1950, and eventually became one of the earliest members of the Povungnituk Sculptors Society (precursor to the Povungnituk Co-op) later in the decade. He was relatively prolific as a sculptor in the late 1950s and early 1960s; he also took part in the earliest printmaking experiments in 1961 but did not pursue it. In his own community Qupirualu became best known as an ordained Anglican minister and a respected elder and he carved very little after the 1960s. Almost from the beginning his carving style was quite realistic in both pose and form. Qupirualu’s figural sculptures of the early to mid 1950s, though few in number, are nonetheless of superlative quality.

Mother and Child, with Ulu and Knife is one of Qupirualu’s greatest masterpieces. While similar in pose to the lovely Mother and Child, c. 1953 in the Winnipeg Art Gallery Collection (see Darlene Wight’s Early Masters, p. 122), our example is not only larger and more imposing but also formally and aesthetically more resolved and sophisticated than this earlier work. Stylistically, Mother and Child, with Ulu and Knife is closer in style to the impressive Mother Holding Child, c. 1954 (see Sculpture Inuit, cat. 298). Our sense is that our example is contemporaneous with that work, or slightly later. While the overall realism and the exquisitely subtle ivory inlay are very similar in the two sculptures, in Mother Holding Child the woman’s face is somewhat mask-like, whereas in our example the mother’s visage is stunningly beautiful. The child’s face too is sensitively rendered; in fact, the overall form and finish of the whole sculpture are remarkably elegant.

Impressive portraits of mothers and children like this one are relatively common in Inukjuak art of the early 1950s, but they are comparatively rare in Puvirnituq art of the period. Puvirnituq sculptors favoured realistic depictions of hunters and animals. Qupirualu’s glorious Mother and Child, with Ulu and Knife certainly invites comparison with the great examples by Inukjuak masters such as Johnny Inukpuk, Isa Smiler, and Sarah Nastapoka.