Space Visions

The paintings by Charles Bittinger, found at this link from National Geographic may seem kind of ordinary in their views and depictions of some of the planets of our solar system. After all, our recent marking of Apollo 8's 50th anniversary and the taking of the famed "Earthrise" photo give us a real actual view of the earth instead of the painting that Bittinger made.

But when you consider that Bittinger painted these scenes in 1939, before the invention of even jet airplanes, you can get a sense of how extraordinary they must have appeared to Geographic readers almost 80 years ago. Bittinger was frequently a painter of science-related material, creating a series of murals on the life of Benjamin Franklin in which each canvas actually held two paintings. One could be seen in regular light but the other only under ultraviolet light. Think how many bedrooms in the 1970s would have been different had the Led Zepplin posters that decorated their walls had images that only showed up in natural light. Bittinger also helped develop camoflauge paintings and patterns for U.S. Navy ships during World War I.

Fortunately, Bittinger lived long enough to see the beginnings of the space age and even the Apollo moon landings. Born in 1879, he was 90 years old when Neil Armstrong took his small step and he died in December 1970. Come to think of it, seeing a human being walk on the moon is something that someone born in 1979 can't lay claim to.

Interesting.