Peesee Osuitok, one of the first carvers in Cape Dorset in the early 1950s, was referred to then as Oshaweetok “A” to distinguish him from the younger artist Osuitok Ipeelee, known as Oshaweetok “B” (even so, their names are sometimes confused). Peesee’s Mother and Child possesses a charming naïveté, but the sculpture is beautifully formed and expertly finished. We love how the two heads of mother and infant are placed side by side on the figure’s flat-topped shoulders! Our attribution is based on George Swinton’s re-attribution of a strikingly similar (and perhaps slightly later) work from Osuitok to Peesee; see Swinton’s Sculpture of the Inuit (1992 edition), fig. 509.

Reference: A masterpiece attributed to Peesee Osuitok, in the National Gallery of Canada collection, is illustrated in Ingo Hessel, Inuit Art: An Introduction, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / New York: Harry Abrams / London: British Museum Press, 1998), pl. 20, p. 28. For other fine sculptures by the artist see also in Swinton’s book, figs. 335 and 506.