UNIDENTIFIED ARTIST, INUKJUAK OR PUVIRNITUQ
Woman Holding a Swaddled Infant, probably early-mid 1950s
stone, 6 x 4 x 5 in (15.2 x 10.2 x 12.7 cm)
unsigned.

ESTIMATE: $7,000 — $10,000

Provenance
Waddington’s Auctions, April 2007, Lot 15;
Acquired from the above by John and Joyce Price, Seattle.

This wonderful little sculpture remains as enigmatic as it is intriguing and delightful. As Inuit from various communities in Nunavik (Arctic Québec) were responding to requests for stone carvings from James Houston and Hudson’s Bay Company traders in the early 1950s, they experimented with various stones and subject matter, and also with different formats. We have not yet been able to confirm which community this carving comes from; neither the stone type nor the style is readily apparent, though it is likely that the work was carved in either Inukjuak or Puvirnituq. We are charmed by the obvious finesse of the workmanship, which suggests an artist with considerable technical ability and experience, but also by the ingenuity with which the maker conceived the carving with detachable parts: namely the mother’s head and the swaddled infant, each of which fits snugly into the mother’s body. It’s a lovely composition that reminds us of certain medieval Madonna and Child images.