On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Normal Lunar Crater, in The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite
James Nasmyth
James Carpenter British
Publisher John Murray British
Not on view
To illustrate his book on lunar geology, Nasmyth devised a technique that sidestepped the technical limitations of astronomical photography. Because the camera could not capture close-up views of the lunar surface, he made detailed drawings of what he saw through his telescope. He used his drawings as the basis for detailed plaster casts, which he then photographed in raking light to produce fabricated images of astonishing verisimilitude. Nasmyth likely adopted the method from his father, a well-known Scottish landscape painter who used plaster models as studies for his paintings.
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