The Evolution of Space Art

This depiction of the lunar surface was created by Paul Fouché for Camille Flammarion’s Les terres du ciel (1884). Featuring nearly 100 commissioned illustrations, it was the first book to be illustrated almost entirely with space art. Here Fouché depicts a lunar landscape that is more realistic than the towering crags favored by most other artists at the time.

French artist George Roux depicts a crew of lunar castaways observing an eclipse as the Earth passes in front of the sun.

This scene, set on the Moon as the Earth eclipses the sun, is one of the many extraordinary pictures created by Scriven Bolton in the first decades of the 20th century. To create many of his illustrations, Bolton introduced the technique of combining painting with photos of meticulously constructed model landscapes.

Lucien Rudaux painted this superb rendering of Saturn (seen from its moon Rhea) for his 1937 book, Sur les autres mondes. Although painted nearly 80 years ago, it holds up well—even with the detailed knowledge we have since gathered about the planet.

Jack Coggins envisioned the furnace-like surface of Mercury in this watercolor painted for The Big Book of Stars, a children’s book about astronomy published in 1955.

After he illustrated the covers for Ballantine Books’ STAR series in the 1970s, John Berkey was in demand for science-fiction book covers. This painting, End of the Run, is typical of the work he did. Berkey was eventually inducted into the Society of Illustrators’ Hall of Fame, where he was called the most influential and innovative futurist artist of his time.

Tohil Mons is a towering 18,000-foot peak looming over the volcanic landscape of Io. Of all the places in the solar system, Io and Saturn’s giant moon, Titan, most appeal to artist Ron Miller.