Save the Whales

Artist Susan Bright Lautmann Hertel (1930 - 1992)

Date1980s

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions44 x 70 in. (111.8 x 177.8 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineGift of the Hilbert Collection

Object number2019.224

DescriptionMark Hilbert: “Susan Hertel was a graduate of Scripps College in Claremont, where she was a student of Millard Sheets and Henry Lee McFee. She later entered a 26-year professional artistic partnership with Sheets and his design studio, and collaborated with him on the art programs for Home Savings banks throughout the West. Here you see her depiction of these two people, maybe a mother and son, and he’s wearing a ‘Save the Whales’ t-shirt. You can tell they like animals, as there are a dog and cat in the painting as well. Around 1980 the Japanese were aggressively hunting whales, and there was a large movement of people pushing back against them doing that so that we could repopulate the ocean with whales again. I think we’ve in many ways succeeded in that, because there are a lot more whales coming up and down our coasts again.”

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