Albany's Historic Whaling Station > Records

PAINTING - SEI WHALE

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Richard Ellis

c. 1975

Subcollections

Overview

Painting of streamline bodied whale, dark grey with a lighter underside and distinctive sickle-shaped dorsal fin; gouache on blue card, framed and mounted with inscription (47).

Historical information

This was originally framed with RE.1999.334.a-c. On recto under image [SEI WHALE/.../...of small organisms/47]

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-RE1999.449

Item type

Artworks

Themes

Art and Design

Nature

Material

Card

Gouache

Metal

Paper

Perspex

Width

410 mm

Height or length

440 mm

Depth

15 mm

Weight

1.52 kg

Inscriptions and markings

SEI WHALE (Balaenoptera borealis)
The common name of this animal (SAY) is derived from the Norwegian seje - the name of a fish that appears off the coasts of Norway at the same time as the whale. At a length of 60 feet this is among the largest of the rorquals, only exceeded in size by the fin and the blue whales. While most other rorquals take in huge mouthfuls of sea water and food organisms and then force out the water with the tongue trapping the food in the fringes of the baleen plates\, the sei whale is a "skimmer" swimming with its mouth open through great rafts of small organisms.
47.

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