“French Accent” of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo Walrus Ivory Carving in the First Third of the 20th Century

The tradition of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo bone-carving art has deep roots, which can be easily read when comparing modern bone-carving with the piquetag of Pegtymel petroglyphs, painted seal-skins or, for example, drawings on ritual objects of Chukotka natives. Undoubtedly, these are the most obvious, but not the only sources of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo bone-carving art of the 20th century. In this work the author takes into account the fact that at the beginning of the 20th century the Chukchi bone-carving craft underwent significant changes of both functional and formal nature. The article presents new facts obtained in the course of studying the archival materials of A. L. Gorbunkov, the first artistic director of the Chukchi Peninsula art workshops, and presents the results of their comparison with objects of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo bone-carving art from the collections of Russian museums. The author consistently describes and attempts to analyze A. L. Gorbunkov’s methods of work with folk artisans of Chukotka, identifies a number of borrowings and gives examples of transformations of French sources (for example, from the works of Gustave Doré and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec) used by the artistic director of Chukchi and Asian Eskimo bone-carving workshops. The presented research allows us to trace the origin of some subjects in the art of the native masters, to comprehend the principles of interaction between professional artists and folk masters during the formation of the Chukchi and Asian Eskimo bone-carving craft. The relevance of the topic of this study is conditioned by a rather limited number of works devoted to the Chukchi and Asian Eskimo art of carved bone before the war, as well as by the lack of studies revealing the methods and principles of work of the first artistic director of bone-carving workshops with folk craftsmen of Chukotka.