Additional Images

Provenance:

Private collection, Hamilton, ON

Note:

Carved by Kinngait (Cape Dorset) artist Mannumi Shaqu while in residence at the the Mountain Sanatorium (now Chedoke Campus) in Hamilton Ontario, this early standing figure of a women carved circa 1955 has a strong, simple form, and hints at the artist’s inclination toward fine detail found in many of his most compelling works.

The Mountain sanatorium in Hamilton was a facility designated as a tuberculosis treatment center for the Eastern Arctic which hosted over 1,200 Inuit between 1953 and 1963.

As a form of occupational therapy, and at the request of hospital residents, male patients would carve, while women would sew, embroider, and make dolls in their beds. [1] Many carvings made during stays at the sanatorium are unsigned and remain unidentified. We are pleased to present here four examples of works made at the Mountain Sanatorium by named artists (lots 9,10, and 11 of this auction, and lot 46 of Small Wonders of Inuit art).

Artworks made by talented artists while patients at the Mountain Sanatorium were the subject of a 2017 exhibition at the Art Gallery of Hamilton titled “Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art.”

Related works:

Waddington’s Auctioneers and Appraisers, April 14, 2008, lot 102.
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Art Gallery of Hamilton, Col. No. 2016.13.47.
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References:

1. Sutherland, Caitlin, “Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art”, Inuit Art Quarterly. December 5, 2017