Long overlooked among Inukjuak carvers of the early 1950s, Isa Smiler now has a prominent place in the Inuit art pantheon thanks in large part to Darlene Coward Wight’s 2006 Early Masters exhibition and catalogue from the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Three important early mother and child sculptures by Smiler are illustrated there; a handful more have come to light since then, including the magnificent Standing Mother and Child offered in the 14 June 2022 catalogue (Lot 21). With the addition of this early work attributed to the artist, we propose the following updated chronology for Mother and Child works by Isa Smiler: c. 1951-52 for the current Mother Nursing a Child; 1952 for the Walker’s Auctions Nov. 2016 work (Lot 39); c. 1952-53 for the Early Masters p. 95; c. 1953 for Standing Mother and Child, First Arts 14 June 2022 catalogue (Lot 21); c. 1953 for Early Masters p. 92; and c. 1954 for Early Masters p. 94.

Although Smiler himself is quoted as saying that he only started carved “earnestly” in 1955-56 [1], James Houston considered him to be an accomplished artist by 1949. [2] Mother Nursing a Child is clearly a very early version (perhaps the very first) of what would become Isa Smiler’s most important series of works, with a trademark style and favourite subject matter and pose in the first half of the 1950s: highly distinctive, impressively large, and rotund figures of seated or kneeling mothers nursing their young children. Almost all of the telltale attributes of his iconic compositions are present: one arm pulled out of its sleeve to support or guide the child to the mother’s breast, while the other hand supports the infant’s weight from the front; the masterfully rendered voluminous form of her amautiq, complete with carefully delineated trim; the powerful circular sweep of her hood; the attention paid to her traditional hairstyle; and the mother’s gaze directed not at her child but at the viewer. Likely within a year, the artist would invent the style of facial features that define the look of his later works. Mother Nursing a Child is a remarkable, seminal work that further solidifies Isa Smiler’s stature as one of the truly great “early masters” of Inuit art.

1. In a 1977 Inuktitut magazine article by him, reproduced in Darlene Wight, Early Masters (WAG, 2006), p. 93.