NORVAL MORRISSEAU, C.M. (1931-2007) ANISHINAABE (OJIBWE)
Bear Child, late 1970s
acrylic on heavy wove watercolour paper, 26.75 x 20 in (67.9 x 50.8 cm)
unsigned;
titled by the artist in graphite (verso), "Bear Child".

Provenance
Acquired by a Private Collection, Ontario from James R. Stevens, Ahnisnabae Art Gallery, Thunder Bay, Ont.;
Estate of the above.

In addition to depictions of animals, as with the preceding lot, Morrisseau frequently painted loving family subjects. To our eyes, Bear Child is among his most interesting variations on this aspect of his work. Deceptively simple in appearance, Bear Child is a far more impressive work than is casually apparent. In keeping with the strong design style Morrisseau developed during his career, this work illustrates the artist’s uniquely distilled forms to represent this young sitter in a hymn of pure colours and fine line work. The pudgy-cheeked bear child looks curiously at the spindly legged insects that surround him, his left paw swatting at the buzzing bees. Morrisseau’s treatment of the picture is so individual and so tender, we suggest that it may be a loving “portrait” of one of his grandchildren.

References: For other works with tender depictions of children, see: The Artist’s Wife and Daughter, 1975 in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection; Virgin Mary with Christ Child and St. John the Baptist, 1973 (Collection of the Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs) illustrated in Elizabeth McLuhan and Tom Hill, Norval Morrisseau and the Emergence of the Image Makers, (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1984), fig. 17, p. 37 and in Lister Sinclair and Jack Pollock, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, (Toronto: Methuen Publications, 1979), p. 101.