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.
Matte painting study for the film Destination Moon
Chesley Bonestell American
Not on view
Bonestell was a pioneering artist whose vivid astronomical images helped sway public opinion in favor of human spaceflight. In addition to illustrating books and magazines, he worked in Hollywood as a special-effects artist and matte painter. This is a study for a fourteen-foot-long painting of the lunar crater Harpalus that appears as a background in the science-fiction film Destination Moon (1950). A clip from the film can be seen on the video monitor in this gallery.