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Artworks
ENNUTSIAK (1893-1967) IQALUIT (FROBISHER BAY)
Two Mothers and Children, c. 1959stone, 2.75 x 3 x 1.5 in (7 x 7.6 x 3.8 cm)
inscribed with artist's disc number, "E-7-603".LOT 1
ESTIMATE: $3,500 — $5,000
PRICE REALIZED: $5,124.00
Further images
Ennutsiak is the most famous and beloved of the first-generation artists to have lived and worked in the Frobisher Bay area on southern Baffin Island. He is best known for...Ennutsiak is the most famous and beloved of the first-generation artists to have lived and worked in the Frobisher Bay area on southern Baffin Island. He is best known for his tableau-style depictions of mostly communal activities such as birthing, hunting, kayak-making, and bible reading. Almost always hewn from a single piece of stone, his rustic yet sensitively carved works possess a marvelous folk-art charm. Two Mothers and Children is one of the smallest and most exquisite examples of his work that we have ever seen. Essentially miniature in scale, the scene depicts what are probably two sisters or two friends, each with a child. One woman helps her youngster climb out of her amaut, while the other affectionately nuzzles her infant or toddler. This little sculpture is a delicate and winsome masterpiece.References: For a depiction of a mother kissing her young child by this artist see Maria von Finckenstein ed., Celebrating Inuit Art 1948-1970, (Hull, QC: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1999), p. 133. For another fine work with a similar theme, Grandmother with Child, see First Arts, 30 Nov. 2021, Lot 22.
Provenance
Private Collection, Canada;
Waddington’s Auctions, Nov. 12, 1990, Lot 304a;
Acquired from the above by John and Joyce Price Collection, Seattle.1of 110
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