Stark and graphic against its warm coloured backing, this work is a compelling example of Norval Morrisseau’s work from the early to mid-1960s. Encouraged by the researcher and mentor Selwyn Dewdney (himself a pupil to Morrisseau’s expansive knowledge of Anishinaabe oral traditions), this era of Morrisseau’s work sees a deceptively minimal colour palette of russet red and black with the occasional accent shade, mimicking the pictographs that dotted the Canadian Shield. A singular figure is central to the composition, with bold outlines and simply defined features that holds itself against the plain background.

1. Similar images by Morrisseau have been given the title Michipichou (Mishipashoo), the name of a powerful water spirit. See Greg Hill et al., Norval Morrisseau: Shaman Artist, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2006), cat. 8; and Lister Sinclair and Jack Pollock, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, (Toronto: Methuen Publications, 1979), p. 71.

2. See Greg Hill et al., op. cit., fig. 30, p. 75.