Albany's Historic Whaling Station > Records

PAINTINGS - (a) MINKE WHALE & (b) BRYDE'S WHALE

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Richard Ellis

c. 1975

Subcollections

Overview

2 paintings in single framed work (a) Minke Whale - streamlined, blue/grey with lighter under-side, distinctive triangular head and dorsal fin (45) (b) Bride's whale - long, slender, blue-grey with lighter under-side, and sickle-shaped dorsal fin located two-thirds back on the body (46); gouache on blue card, framed and mounted with inscription

Historical information

Collection of 106 of paintings by Richard Ellis that were selected by the Smithsonian Institution to form a traveling exhibit of the marine mammals of the world. The collection was purchased by Perth businessman Kevin Parry in 1985 and donated to Whale World, now known as Albany's Historic Whaling Station.

Marks: (on verso Smithsonian label checklist # 45,46,47 Packing case # 1 Prints have been reframed and (c) is now RE.1999.449 Now no marks on verso.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-128-RE1999.334a-b

Item type

Material

Width

810 mm

Height or length

440 mm

Depth

15 mm

Inscriptions and markings

MINKE WHALE (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
At a maximum length of 30 feet, the minke is the smallest of the rorquals ("grooved whales"). There are two types - northern and southern minkes. Along with the larger rorquals - the blue, fin, and sei whales - southern minkes come to the Antarctic to feed in the summer. Only when the larger species became too scarce to hunt economically did whalers take after them. Minkes are now the only baleen whales hunted commercially in the Antarctic by Soviet and Japanese whalers.
45.
BRYDE'S WHALE (Balaenoptera edeni)
Sometimes referred to as the "tropical whale", Bryde's whale (named for the Norwegian consul to South Africa in 1913) is the only rorqual that does not inhabit polar or near-polar waters. It closely resembles the sei whale; where the sei has a single ridge on the top of the upper jaw (the "rostrum"). Bryde's (BREE-dah's) whale has a central ridge and two flanking ridges. This baleen whale reaches a maximum length of 50 feet, and is still hunted by the Japanese in their coastal waters.
46.

Reframed - no verso. Original Verso Smithsonian label checklist # 45,46 Packing case # 1 , AWHS accession number RE1999.334a.b

Contextual information

The paintings represent a body of work by well-known American marine conservationist, author, artist and natural historian Richard Ellis (1938-2024).

Keywords

Richard Ellis

Albany's Historic Whaling Station

Smithsonian Institution

Marine Mammals

Place made

United States

Year

c. 1975