1970, Alma Thomas, Snoopy—Early Sun Display on Earth (detail) -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
In Snoopy-Early Sun Display on Earth, Thomas's reverence for the beauty of living things expands to a planetary scale. Captivated by astronauts' accounts of seeing Earth from outer space, Thomas portrayed a rainbow-hued planet pulsating with light and vitality.
"Snoopy" was the nickname for the Apollo 8 lunar module, a reference to the Peanuts comic strip character (who was also a NASA mascot) and the module's job of flying around the moon to "snoop" for a promising landing site. Thomas would likely have seen the widely circulated photograph taken from "Snoopy" as it orbited the moon. Known as Earthrise, the image shows a partly illuminated, vibrant blue Earth as it rises above the surface of the moon.
Link to the full painting.
1970, Alma Thomas, Snoopy—Early Sun Display on Earth (detail) -- Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington)
From the museum label:
In Snoopy-Early Sun Display on Earth, Thomas's reverence for the beauty of living things expands to a planetary scale. Captivated by astronauts' accounts of seeing Earth from outer space, Thomas portrayed a rainbow-hued planet pulsating with light and vitality.
"Snoopy" was the nickname for the Apollo 8 lunar module, a reference to the Peanuts comic strip character (who was also a NASA mascot) and the module's job of flying around the moon to "snoop" for a promising landing site. Thomas would likely have seen the widely circulated photograph taken from "Snoopy" as it orbited the moon. Known as Earthrise, the image shows a partly illuminated, vibrant blue Earth as it rises above the surface of the moon.
Link to the full painting.