James Hall Nasmyth
Crater of Vesuvius

CultureScottish
Titles
  • Crater of Vesuvius
Date1864
PlaceItaly
MediumWoodburytype
DimensionsImage: 3 7/8 × 5 in. (9.8 × 12.7 cm)
Sheet: 6 1/4 × 8 13/16 in. (15.9 × 22.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of Clinton T. Willour in honor of Peter C. Marzio
Object number90.523
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

James Nasmyth, a Scottish engineer and amateur astronomer, and James
Carpenter, an astronomer with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, published The Moon, Considered as a Planet, a World,
and a Satellite
. Because photography was not advanced enough to take close-up
photographs of the moon, Nasmyth built elaborate plaster models of his
observations of the moon and photographed those for the book. He photographed
the models in raking light to faithfully reproduce the effects of light and
shadow he had observed through his telescope. To promote his conviction that the
moon’s surface was formed by volcanoes, he emulated steam by smearing his
fingerprints on the reproduction plate before printing.




Provenance[Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston]; purchased by Clinton T. Willour, Houston, April 22, 1987; given to MFAH, 1990.
Exhibition History"The Moon: 'Houston, Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle Has Landed'," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 27, 2009–January 10, 2010.

"Shooting the Moon: Photographs from the Museum's Collection 50 Years after Apollo 11," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, July 20–September 2, 2019.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Printed in black, recto, top right above image: PLATE I
Printed in black, recto, lower left below image: J. Nasmyth,
Printed in black, recto, lower center below image: CRATER OF VESUVIUS // 1864
Printed in black, recto, lower right below image: "Woodburytype."

[no verso inscriptions]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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