Provenance:

The John and Mary Robertson collection, CA,
by descent to present owner


John and Mary Robertson started the Robertson Galleries in Ottawa in 1953 working tirelessly to promote Inuit art to collectors all over the world. They purchased art directly from artists in the Arctic for both the gallery and their own collection. Mary Robertson was director of fine arts at the Canadian Arctic Producers from 1976 to 1979 and marketing consultant for the National Museums of Canada from 1979 to 1981. John Robertson was the administrative officer for the National Gallery and it was during this time that he desired to be more a part of the cultural and aesthetic aspect of the art world. He also was a member of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council. Their impact as pioneers in the appreciation and understanding of Inuit carvings as art earned them the reputation as having one of the top galleries to exhibit Inuit art. Several pieces included in this auction were exhibited in Selections from The John and Mary Robertson Collection of Inuit Sculpture at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston in 1986.

Note:

“A rough-legged hawk wanted a snow goose for a wife for a long time. The goose, however, was not agreeing to the hawk. The hawk said, ‘I’ll just hover’ [a characteristic]. While traveling where there is no land, over open water, the snow geese land on the water when tired. So then, having taken the goose for his wife, the hawk started following. He was not the same, being slower and, in addition, non-aquatic. And then the geese, tiring, were landing on the water. When they landed, he was as he had said [...] Trying to land because he was tired, he clutched the feathers on the back of the snow goose. But he fell over backwards into the water. Such was the hawk’s misfortune.”
Story by Noah Killupa Qinuajua, as retold in Zebedee Nungak & Eugene Arima, Eskimo Stories - Unikkaatuat, National Museums of Canada, Bulletin No. 235, Series No. 90, 1969, p. 45