Albany's Historic Whaling Station > Records

PAINTING - FINLESS PORPOISE

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Richard Ellis

c. 1975

Subcollections

Overview

Painting of blunt headed blue grey porpoise with a large flipper and no dorsal fin, gouache on blue card, framed and mounted with inscription (42.)

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.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-128-RE1999.346

Item type

Artworks

Themes

Art and Design

Nature

Material

Card

Gouache

Paper

Perspex

Width

410 mm

Height or length

440 mm

Depth

15 mm

Weight

1.52 kg

Inscriptions and markings

FINLESS PORPOISE (Neophocaena pocaenoides)
One of the most unusual of all the small cetaceans, this small (6 feet maximum length), beakless porpoise is easily identified by the total lack of dorsal fin. For years it was known colloquially as the "black finless porpoise," but on-site observations of living animals reveal it to be a light bluish-gray. In place of the dorsal fin, Neophocaena has a series of tubercles on its back, and the actual function of these bumps was only recently discovered; the babies ride the backs of their mothers, helped to stay aboard by her roughened skin.
42.

Verso: Smithsonian label checklist # 42 Packing case # 3, AWHS accession number

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