A prolific artist during his relatively short career, Parr created drawings informed by his memories as a traditional hunter on the land and sea. In this work, we not only see not only a successful walrus hunt in the upper half of the work, but also other snippets of figures observing walrus and a sled being pulled by dogs. The stars of this work are the positively mountainous black walrus, a focal point with its wonderfully textured body, and the much smaller figure of the hunter who has speared it. The tall, almost ghostly figures at the left of the work exemplify Parr’s very earliest attempts at drawing humans and remind us why his art has sometimes been compared to that of young children. The figure at bottom left might well be a narrator, possibly Parr himself, regaling us with one of the many stories of his hunts from the past.

References: This image is in Helga Goetz, The Inuit Print, international travelling exhibition, (Ottawa: National Museums of Canada and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, 1977), pl. 24, p. 76. For examples of contemporaneous drawings by Parr see Ingo Hessel, “The Drawings of Parr: A Closer Look,” Inuit Art Quarterly, Fall 1998, Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 14-20.; Marion E. Jackson, Parr: His Drawings, (Halifax: Art Gallery, Mount Saint Vincent University, 1988); and Drew Armour, “Parr: A Unique Canadian Artist” in Canadian Antiques & Art Review, (April 1981), pp. 30-35. For information about the artist, see Terry Ryan, “Parr” in The Beaver, Autumn 1979; this article was subsequently reprinted in Alma Houston, ed. Inuit Art: An Anthology, (Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer, 1988) pp. 38-41.