Name: CHESLEY BONESTELL (1888-1986)
Brand: DESCENDING TOWARD THE MOON
Price: 100000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

CHESLEY BONESTELL (1888-1986)
DESCENDING TOWARD THE MOON
signed Chesley Bonestell (lower left)
oil on board
13¹⁄₄ x 16 in. (33.7 x 40.6 cm.) (sight)
Executed circa 1951.

Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), Huntsville, Alabama.
Frederick I. Ordway III (1927-2014), Huntsville, Alabama; acquired from the estate of the above, May 1979.
Acquired by the late owner from the above, 2003.

Wernher von Braun, "Man on the Moon: The Journey," Collier’s, 18 October 1952, p. 58, illustrated (Schuetz 96).
Wernher von Braun, Fred Whipple, and Willy Ley, Conquest of the Moon (New York, 1953), p. 63, illustrated (Schuetz 117).
Ron Miller and Frederick C. Durant III, The Art of Chesley Bonestell (London, 2001), p. 180, illustrated.
Frederick I. Ordway III, Visions of Spaceflight: Images from the Ordway Collection (New York, 2001), p. 137, illustrated.

Seattle, Pivot Art + Culture, Imagined Futures: Science Fiction, Art, and Artifacts from the Paul G. Allen Family Collection, 7 April-10 July 2016.

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Lot Essay

The Collier's magazine depiction of the first lunar landing: published 17 years before the actuality.

This painting was the final illustration in Wernher von Braun's article on the journey to the Moon which appeared in Collier's 18 October 1952 issue. It was captioned: "Landing on the moon. Ten minutes before touchdown, rocket motors are switched on to slow down ships' high-speed fall caused by the moon's gravity. Vehicles are maneuvering 550 miles above landing area known as Sinus Roris (Dewy Bay), dark plain above cargo ship in lower left."