Chesley Bonestell

2006-10-05T05:15:47Z

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'''Chesley Bonestell''' ([[1888]] – [[11 june]] [[1986]]) was a painter, designer, and illustrator. His paintings were a major influence on [[science fiction]] art and illustration, and he helped inspire the American [[space program]].

Bonestell studied architecture at [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City]]. Dropping out in his third year, he worked as a renderer and designer for several of the leading [[architecture|architectural]] firms of the time. While with William van Alen, he designed the façade of the [[Chrysler Building]] as well as its distinctive [[gargoyle]]s. Returning to the west coast, he worked on the [[Golden Gate Bridge]], where he illustrated all of the stages of the bridge's construction as well as contributing to the final design.

When the [[Great Depression]] dried up architectural work in the [[United States]], Bonestell went to [[England]], where he rendered architectural subjects for the ''Illustrated London News''. In the late [[1930s]] he moved to [[Hollywood]], where he used his talent for realistic painting to work as a [[special effects]] artist, creating [[matte paintings]] for such [[film]]s as ''[[Citizen Kane]]'', ''[[The Magnificent Ambersons]]'', and ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''.

Bonestell then realized that he could combine what he had learned about camera angles, miniature modeling, and painting techniques with his lifelong interest in [[astronomy]]. The result was a series of paintings of [[Saturn (planet)|Saturn]] as seen from several of its [[natural satellite|moon]]s that was published in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' in [[1944]]. Nothing like these had ever been seen before: they looked as though photographers had been sent into space. His painting of Saturn seen from the frosty moon Titan is perhaps the most famous astronomical landscape ever. It was constructed with a combination of clay models, photographic tricks, and various painting techniques. (It turns out that Titan has a thick haze such that such a view is probably not possible in reality.)

Bonestell followed up the sensation these paintings created by publishing more paintings in many leading national [[magazine]]s. These and others were eventually collected in the best-selling book ''The Conquest of Space'' (1949). Bonestell's last work in Hollywood was contributing special effects art and technical advice to the seminal [[science fiction]] films produced by [[George Pál]], including ''[[Destination Moon (film)|Destination Moon]]''.

When [[Wernher von Braun]] organized a space flight symposium for ''[[Collier's Magazine]]'', he invited Bonestell to illustrate his concepts for the future of spaceflight. For the first time, spaceflight was shown to be a matter of the near future. Von Braun and Bonestell showed that it could be accomplished with the [[technology]] then existing in the mid-[[1950s]], and that the question was that of [[money]] and will. Coming as they did at the beginning of the [[Cold War]] and just before the sobering shock of the launch of [[Sputnik]], the [[1952]]-[[1954]] ''[[Collier's Magazine]]'' series titled [[Man Will Conquer Space Soon]] was instrumental in kick-starting America's space program.

Bonestell died in [[1986]] with an unfinished painting on his easel. By then he had been honored internationally for the contribution he made to the birth of modern [[astronautics]], from a bronze medal awarded by the [[British Interplanetary Society]] to a place in the [[International Space Hall of Fame]] to an asteroid named for him. His paintings are prized by collectors and institutions such as the [[National Air and Space Museum]] and the [[National Collection of Fine Arts]]. One of his classic paintings, an ethereally beautiful image of Saturn seen from its giant moon [[Titan (moon)|Titan]], has been called "the painting that launched a thousand careers." Wernher von Braun wrote that he had "learned to respect, nay fear, this wonderful artist's obsession with perfection. My file cabinet is filled with sketches of rocket ships I had prepared to help in his artwork—only to have them returned to me with…blistering criticism."

A [[Impact crater|crater]] on [[Mars (planet)|Mars]] and the [[asteroid]] [[3129 Bonestell]] are named after him.

==External links==

*[http://www.bonestell.org Bonestell Space Art]

[[Category:1888 births|Bonestell, Chesley]]
[[Category:1986 deaths|Bonestell, Chesley]]
[[Category:Astronomy people|Bonestell, Chesley]]
[[Category:Science fiction artists|Bonestell, Chesley]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame|Bonestell, Chesley]]

[[fi:Chesley Bonestell]]

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Chesley Bonestell