Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.8507
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
Grampus [False Killer whale?]
Date
1787
Creator
William Bell (British) , Surgeon
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (painting): 201mm
width (painting): 283mm
width (painting): 283mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Plate 17 for the paper “Observations on the structure and oeconomy of whales”, by John Hunter, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society vol. 77 part 1 1787 pp.371-450. View of the animal’s left side from slightly above: there is a shadow below, suggesting a whale seen laid out on the ground. Hunter described the whale as “about eighteen feet long, the belly white but less so than in the former, and shaded off into the dark colour of the back”. The specimen was caught in the River Thames “fifteen years ago” [eg 1772]. Numbered “II”. Not signed.
Associated place