Chromolithographs of E.L. Trouvelot

September 16, 2003 7:56 AM

The Chromolithographs of E.L. Trouvelot. "Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895), a French-born artist and amateur astronomer, spent 15 years observing the heavens and making original drawings from his observations: 'While my aim in this work has been to combine scrupulous fidelity and accuracy in the details, I have also endeavored to preserve the natural elegance and the delicate outlines peculiar to the objects depicted.' To illustrate his observations of celestial objects and phenomena, Trouvelot selected fifteen of his drawings to be reproduced using chromolithography, an illustration process that was at the zenith of its development in the 1880's." Heavens Above is a NYPL exhibit that compares his art and science to contemporary photos by NASA of the same phenomena.
posted by eyebeam (8 comments total)

Hmm, a little long for an FPP, my apologies. It looked shorter on the preview page. I'll try to keep it briefer in the future.
posted by eyebeam at 8:05 AM on September 16, 2003

Sunspots? Wow.
posted by gwint at 8:22 AM on September 16, 2003

Gorgeous! Thanks for the link. I've just taken up an interest in astronomy and I've been trying to sketch what I'm seeing. It's hard enough to sketch when you can't draw for shit but to draw what you see in your eyepiece makes it 1000 times harder.

This site is inspiring.
posted by bondcliff at 8:23 AM on September 16, 2003

Wonderful - thanks, eyebeam.
posted by carter at 8:46 AM on September 16, 2003

This is fantastic, eyebeam! Also check out the animated gifs of Galileo's sunspot drawings.
posted by samuelad at 10:49 AM on September 16, 2003

Really neat. I like the moon and those sun spots. Cool stuff!
posted by lobakgo at 11:47 AM on September 16, 2003

Very nice - thanks eyebeam.
posted by plep at 11:48 AM on September 16, 2003

These are lovely images, thanks - and I really like the word chromolithograph.
posted by misteraitch at 12:06 AM on September 17, 2003