Total Eclipse of the Sun. Observed July 29, 1878, at Creston, Wyoming Territory, from the Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings Manual
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.Working with a telescope outfitted with an etched-glass grid in the eyepiece, Trouvelot made sketches on gridded paper that became the basis for stunning pastels. He published fifteen of these as chromolithographs in The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings Manual. In its introduction, the artist characterized photography as an aid at best, and one with serious limitations, often producing astronomical images "so blurred and indistinct that no details of any great value can be secured." His renderings of the lunar Mare Humorum and a total solar eclipse show that he strove not merely to make detailed records for astronomers, but also to capture the sublimity of celestial bodies.
Artwork Details
- Title: Total Eclipse of the Sun. Observed July 29, 1878, at Creston, Wyoming Territory, from the Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings Manual
- Artist: Etienne Léopold Trouvelot (French, Aisne 1827–1895 Meudon)
- Publisher: Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY)
- Date: 1881–1882
- Medium: Chromolithograph
- Dimensions: Sheet: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
- Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Rare Book Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
- Curatorial Department: Photographs