#79 • Fred Machetanz "Reaching the Campsite" Print

Part of December 2024 Premier Auction (live auction by Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals)

High bid $600.00

Status: Sold

Category: Art: Alaskan Multiples

A signed and numbered 692/950 print entitled "Reaching the Campsite" by Alaska artist Fred Machetanz (1908-2002). The work depicts the captain and crew of an oomiak (skinboat) reaching their campsite for whale hunting off the coast of Arctic Alaska. It is spring, the time bowhead whales migrate north and surface among the ice floes which have begun to break up, and the site selected for camping is on the edge of land-locked ice about two miles offshore. The captain and crew are poised to jump and pull their oomiak up on the ice. Extending from the prow of the oomiak is the whaling harpoon, and a float fashioned from an inflated sealskin may be seen among the supplies and will be attached by line to the harpoon to mark where the whale sinks below the surface. In this particular area near Point Hope, as many as a dozen whaling crews may keep watch at quarter-mile intervals and one such camp may be seen across the water. A canvas windbreak protects campers from occasional bitter winds, and though it is a cold and exhausting time, hunters are sustained by hot meals of fried dough, seal meat, and muktuk (whale blubber). Matted and framed with information about the print and artist en verso; measures approximately 29.5" x 42" overall.