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Artworks
HISTORIC PERIOD INUIT ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC
Grazing Caribou, probably 1935 or earlierivory and black pigment, 1.25 x 3.75 x 0.75 in (3.2 x 9.5 x 1.9 cm)
unsigned.LOT 145
ESTIMATE: $400 — $600
PRICE REALIZED: $439.20Further images
This naïve yet exquisitely beautiful Grazing Caribou is a fine example of late Historic Period Inuit art. The animal’s long, low proportions probably reflect the piece of ivory the artist...This naïve yet exquisitely beautiful Grazing Caribou is a fine example of late Historic Period Inuit art. The animal’s long, low proportions probably reflect the piece of ivory the artist had to work with. The lovely look of polished ivory tends to imbue small works with a feeling of preciousness. This fine sculpture easily transcends that, possessing a truly special sense of grace.
References: See Historic Period ivory carvings of caribou in Canadian Eskimo Arts Council, Sculpture / Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), cats. 126-127.
Provenance
Collected by William Melville MacLean (1888-1978), the Canadian Post Office official traveling to Hudson Bay, Baffin Island, and Craig Harbour on Ellesmere Island aboard the famous Arctic icebreaker Nascopie when it was rechristened the R.M.S. [Royal Mail Ship] Nascopie in 1935;
by descent in the family.
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