The population of the canadian great North was realized in two successive waves.

The second one was composed of Inuits who moved on from Alaska to the east only 1000 years ago.

They oly live on huntin They hunted seals, narwals, walrus..but their best is the polar bear.

The uits descendants praticed rt as you can see in the pictures above : a beutiful ivory sculpture.

The Arctic is the last area in the world that humans occupied.

The Amerindian ancestors went through the western arctic at the end of the glaciation.

Their descendants who lived from hunting were the first to take up the challenge of this arctic area.

The archeologists call them the "Paleoeskimos" or "old eskimos".They have developed a unique way of life and let artistic works like this ivory bear from Bathust island.

To quote Dominique Pascal in his book "

The passion for bears" : " It's not certain that this sculpture was at first intended to make a lamp.

This assembly dates from after the work. Until the last world war, some people wanted furniture where bears were sculpted" .

In some countries like Switzerland or Germany, they have sculpted a lot of bears and these objects are part of a very expensive collection of objects.

Thes sculptures on wood need some hours of work.

© " The passion for bears " of Dominique Pascal

François Pompon is a French sculptor who died in 1933.He is knon for his sculptures of animals, especially of bears and it's my interest here.

His sculptures are shown in the Orsay museum in Paris. The main characteristic of his work is their simple shapes and the beauty which emerges from them.The bear is very similar to its real model and that's what I like in these sculptures.

As Liliane Colas, the author of the Pompon's ctalogue sys : " The polar bear, was the beginning of Pompon's fame and was indissociable from his success.

This work was the result of long researches It transformed his life.Intended to be placed in a public garden, the big stone bear, after the closing of the Luxembourg museum was transfered to the Modern Art museum and finally to the Orsay museum where it is shown now.

Since 1929, François Pompon has been known al over the world and has become very popular.

Young Artists devoted to animals adopted François Pompon as a master, following him to the plant garden, or observing him in his workshop.It's at this moment, that, François Pompon founded the group named "douze animaliers français".

Here are some of François Pompon's works