This diminutive sculpture is as curious as it is accomplished. Made during the early years of carving for sale in Nunavik, probably at Inukjuak or Puvirnituq, it resists easy attribution. Neither the stone nor the handling points decisively to a single community.

Its construction is particularly ingenious: the woman’s head and the swaddled babe were carved separately because the original stone did not permit the full figure to be taken from a single block, a practical solution known in a small number of other Inuit sculptures. Here, however, the device becomes integral to the work. Both the mother’s head and the tightly swaddled child lift free from the body. When assembled, the mother gathers the infant closely against her chest, her broad arms and oversized hands closing firmly around the smaller form.

Additionally, the clothing is beautifully considered. The broad hood of the amautiq becomes a substantial sculptural mass, its thick rolled edge circling the shoulders and forming the socket for the separately carved head. Across the back, long diagonal folds sweep down from the hood, while deep cuts beneath the arms give the garment a palpable thickness and weight. The body is felt as much through these swelling folds and scooped recesses as through anatomy.

The woman's face is firmly modelled, with a long projecting nose, shallowly incised eyes and a small upturned mouth so that she greets us with a smile. Her hair is smoothly rendered, parted and drawn back into a rounded bun at the nape of her neck. The infant is treated with equal care: its small spherical head tilts upward, the tiny eyes, short nose and smiling mouth lightly incised. A broad band of closely modelled hair, or perhaps a cap, frames the face and echoes the treatment of the mother's head. Fine incised decoration along the child’s wrapping supplies a final flourish of surface detail.

FA