Elijassiapik and Johnny Inukpuk were good friends (but not brothers, as some thought). Elijassiapik lived at Inukpuk’s camp, and it’s likely that they carved together sometimes. It has been said that he was not a prolific carver, but several fine works by the artist have surfaced over the past twenty years or so, some from the 1950s and more from the early to mid 1960s [1]. Although many Inukjuak carvers left their works unsigned in the 1950s, Elijassiapik sometimes did sign with his disc number and syllabics, as with this fine work [2]. One important signed sculpture is especially relevant here: a Mother and Child with Kudlik in the Klamer Family Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario [3]. There are differences: that work includes an integral base and a qulliq as well as a serving dish (with a tiny seal) set in front, and the mother is embellished with inlaid stone face and ivory hands. Stylistically, though, the two sculptures are quite similar. The overall form of each is expansive, the amautiq hoods are generous, and the two mothers’ facial features are very alike. Take away the base of the AGO piece, and even the scale of the figures is the same: quite compact. Part of the great charm of our example is the very fact that she can be comfortably held in one’s hands (trust us, you will want to pick her up). We also love how her child tries to peer up over its mother’s head to look at us. This is one of the most endearing works of this genre that we have had the pleasure of offering.

1. See examples of very fine bears by the artist in First Arts, 13 July 2021, Lot 95; 5 Dec. 2022, Lot 17; and 12 June 2023, Lot 10.

2. Here, he has signed syllabics that omit the “-apik” ending. The WAG’s Early Masters catalogue confirms that he sometimes did this (note, p. 89).

3. See Jean Blodgett, Grasp Tight the Old Ways, (Toronto: AGO, 1983), cat. 116, illustrated pp. 28 and 175.