Albany's Historic Whaling Station > Records

PAINTING - (a) HARBOR SEAL, (b) RINGED SEAL

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Richard Ellis

c. 1975

Subcollections

Overview

2 paintings in single framed work (a) Harbor seal: 2 black spotted grey seals, rounded bodies, a dog-like snouts, and short flippers, with mottled white pup. (85.) (b) Ringed seal: 2 plump-bodied brown seals with distinctive silver rings on their backs and sides, small, rounded heads and short snouts, with grey/white pup. (86.); gouache on blue card, framed and mounted with inscription

Historical information

Marks: (on verso Smithsonian label checklist # 85,86,87 Packing case # 1) (Full details on Data Record Sheet) This has now been reframed (c) is now in a separate frame and is RE.1999. 447 . There is now nothing marked on verso.

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.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-128-RE1999.307a,b

Item type

Themes

Material

Width

810 mm

Height or length

420 mm

Depth

15 mm

Inscriptions and markings

(a) HARBOR SEAL (Phoca vitulina)
This small, stocky seal is found throughout the temperate and arctic waters of the northern hemisphere, and has the widest distribution of any pinniped. It is a non-migratory species, breeding and feeding in the same area throughout the year. The harbor seal uses its hind flippers for propulsion in water, but o land it hitches along using only its fore flippers. Harbor seals eat almost anything they can catch, but their diet consists mostly of fish. They occasionally raid and ruin fishermen's nets, and are killed for this reason, as well as for their meat and fur.
85.

(b) RINGED SEAL (Pusa hispida)
Creatures of the northern hemisphere ice pack, ringed seals have a completely circumpolar distribution. They are the smallest of the earless seals (Phocidae), rarely reaching 4½ feet in length. Females give birth to 2-foot-long calves in caves or tunnels in the snow - a most unusual habit in seals. Throughout their range they are hunted by Eskimos who use the meat blubber and skins, and they are the favorite prey of polar bears. There are several subspecies of ringed seals., distinguished primarily by distribution.
86.

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

Primary significance criteria