Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes — Moby-Dick

After the wrong whale pictures in the last chapter, Ishmael turns to art that is less wrong. He also looks at true pictures of whaling scenes. He skips the wild old stories in books like Pliny and Cuvier.

He knows only four published outlines of the great sperm whale. Beale's is the best. Huggins is much better than Colnett and Cuvier. Ross Browne's sperm whale shapes are pretty correct, but the engravings are poor.

For the right whale, Scoresby has the best outlines. They are drawn too small to give a strong impression. He has only one whaling scene picture. Ishmael calls that a sad lack. Only good hunt pictures show the living whale as hunters really see him.

The finest whale art Ishmael names comes from Garnery, a French painter. One engraving shows a sperm whale rising under a broken boat. An oarsman leaps through the boiling spout while frightened crew heads scatter and the ship races through storm.

Garnery's second piece shows hunters beside a running right whale. The front is full of commotion. Behind them the sea is calm. A dead whale floats like a conquered fort with a capture flag in its spout hole.

Ishmael bets Garnery knew whaling or learned from a whaleman. The French are good at painting action. English and American artists mostly draw empty side profiles. Those are about as lively as sketching a pyramid.

Even Scoresby fills his book with boat hooks and magnified snow crystals instead of living hunts. Two Durand engravings add a quiet Pacific noon and a frantic cutting-in scene with smoke like village smithies.

Garnery's anatomy is not perfect. Ishmael admits he could not draw half as well. Motion and truth matter more than a tidy outline.