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Albany's Historic Whaling Station > Records

PAINTING - LEOPARD SEAL

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Richard Ellis

c. 1975

Subcollections

Richard Ellis Collection

Overview

Painting of grey brown mottled seal with open jaw in profile, gouache on blue card, framed and mounted with inscription (98).

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 know as Albany's Historic Whaling Station.

Details

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-128-RE1999.308

Item type

Themes

Material

Width

410 mm

Height or length

440 mm

Depth

15 mm

Weight

1.52 kg

Inscriptions and markings

Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) Named for its spots as well as its hunting habits, the leopard seal is found throughout the Antarctic and surrounding island groups. Leopard seals are active carnivores, feeding on fish, krill, squid, other seals, and penguins. the species is unusual in that the females and considerably larger that the males, and both sexes have a particularly large head, which looks too big for the slender body.

Verso: Smithsonian label checklist # 98 Packing case # 5, 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

Smithsonian Institution

Albany's Historic Whaling Station

Place made

United States

Year

Primary significance criteria

Artistic or aesthetic significance

Scientific or research significance

Comparative significance criteria

Object’s condition or completeness

Rare or representative

Well provenanced

Last modified

Wednesday, 15 October, 2025

Completeness

100

Copyright and Reference

Copyright and Reference

Copyright category

Other

Permissions

Reproduction or publication with Albany's Historic Whaling Station permission only.

Copyright holder

Albany's Historic Whaling Station

Albany's Historic Whaling Station

Albany's Historic Whaling Station

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Leopard seal painting with inscription

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