Northern bottlenose whale
Date
1839
Creator
James Alderson (1794 - 1882, British) , Physician
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 181mm
width (painting): 293mm
width (painting): 293mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Study of a whale caught after being stranded in shallow water of the Humber Estuary near Kingston upon Hull following the retreat of a tide. Identified by the author as the “2 Toothed Bottle nosed whale”, probably the Northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus). The painting was intended to show variations in skin pigmentation.
An accompanying description states that the cetacean was female and around nineteen feet in length. However, “The Tail as represented in the drawing is imperfect having been mutilated in taking the Animal.”
Unpublished illustration intended as plate 2 for the paper “On the difference of colour in different parts of the bodies of animals” by James Alderson. A brief abstract of this paper (composed by Peter Mark Roget) was published in Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions... [eg Proceedings of the Royal Society] v.4 1837-1843 pp.165-166.
Not signed. Inscribed in ink top left “No.2”. Below, “Sketch from nature, of a Hyperoodon (Dr. Alderson’s Paper” and “Roy. Soc. Proc. vol.4 p.165.”
Sir James Alderson (1794-1882) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841.
An accompanying description states that the cetacean was female and around nineteen feet in length. However, “The Tail as represented in the drawing is imperfect having been mutilated in taking the Animal.”
Unpublished illustration intended as plate 2 for the paper “On the difference of colour in different parts of the bodies of animals” by James Alderson. A brief abstract of this paper (composed by Peter Mark Roget) was published in Abstracts of the papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions... [eg Proceedings of the Royal Society] v.4 1837-1843 pp.165-166.
Not signed. Inscribed in ink top left “No.2”. Below, “Sketch from nature, of a Hyperoodon (Dr. Alderson’s Paper” and “Roy. Soc. Proc. vol.4 p.165.”
Sir James Alderson (1794-1882) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1841.
Associated place