Name: CHESLEY BONESTELL (1888-1986)
Brand: IN ORBIT 600 MILES ABOVE MARS! PREPARING TO LAND
Price: 140000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

CHESLEY BONESTELL (1888-1986)
IN ORBIT 600 MILES ABOVE MARS! PREPARING TO LAND
signed Chesley Bonestell (lower right), titled In Orbit / 600 miles / above Mars! / preparing to land (on reverse)
oil on board
17¹⁄₄ x 33¹⁄₄ in. (43.8 x 84.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1954.

Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), Huntsville, Alabama.
Dr. Carsbie C. Adams (1922-2002), Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
Frederick I. Ordway III (1927-2014), Huntsville, Alabama; acquired from the above on 14 September 1979.
Acquired by the late owner from the above, 2003.

Wernher Von Braun and Cornelius Ryan, “Can We Get to Mars?: Man will Conquer Space Soon!”, Collier's, 30 April 1954, pp. 26-27, illustrated (Schuetz 140).
Ron Miller and Frederick C. Durant III, The Art of Chesley Bonestell (London, 2001), p. 190-191, illustrated.
Frederick I. Ordway III, Visions of Spaceflight: Images from the Ordway Collection (New York, 2001), dust jacket art, p. 152, illustrated.
Wernher Von Braun, Project Mars: A Technical Tale (Ontario, 2006), pl. 13, illustrated.

Seattle, Washington, Science Fiction Museum, inaugural exhibition, June 2004-August 2006.
London, The Design Museum, Move to Mars, 18 October 2019-23 February 2020.

Conditions of Sale
FAQs
This lot is offered by Christie's Inc

Brought to you by

Lot Essay

The first landing party descends towards Mars.

This is the second of the two double-page Chesley Bonestell illustrations for the final installment of the Collier's space series: "Can We Get to Mars?," 30 April 1954. It is captioned, "The first landing party takes off for Mars. Two other landing planes will wait until runway is prepared for them, and the remaining seven ships will stay in 600-mile orbit. Arms on cargo ships hold screenlike dish antennas (for communication), trough-shaped solar mirrors (for power)."

Written over 70 years ago, this article concludes: "What curious information will these first explorers carry back from Mars? Nobody knows—and it's extremely doubtful that anyone now living will ever know. All that can be said with certainty today is this: the trip can be made, and will be made ... someday."