Шеслей Бонестелл: Ғарыш суретшісінің шығармашылығы

American science fiction and space illustrator (1888–1986)

Bonestell then realized that he could combine what he had learned about camera angles, miniature modeling, and painting techniques with his lifelong interest in astronomy. The result was a series of paintings of Saturn as seen from several of its moons that was published in Life in 1944. Nothing like these had ever been seen before: they looked as though photographers had been sent into space. His painting "Saturn as Seen from Titan" is perhaps the most famous astronomical landscape ever, and is nicknamed "the painting that launched a thousand careers." It was constructed with a combination of clay models, photographic tricks and various painting techniques. (Titan has a thick haze; such a view is probably not possible in reality.) Bonestell followed up the sensation these paintings created by publishing more paintings in many leading national magazines. These and others were eventually collected in the best selling book The Conquest of Space (1949), produced in collaboration with author Willy Ley. Bonestell's last work in Hollywood was contributing special effects art and technical advice to the seminal science fiction films produced by George Pal, including Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds and Conquest of Space, as well as Cat Women of the Moon. Beginning with the October 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, Bonestell painted more than 60 cover illustrations for science fiction magazines, primarily The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, in the 1950s through 1970s. He also illustrated many book covers.

During his lifetime, Bonestell was honored internationally for the contributions he made to the birth of modern astronautics, from a bronze medal awarded by the British Interplanetary Society to a place in the International Space Hall of Fame to an asteroid named for him. The Conquest of Space won the 1951 International Fantasy Award for nonfiction, one of the first two fantasy or science fiction awards anywhere, at the British SF Convention.

Bonestell appeared in the documentary The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) (Produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit). A documentary about his life, Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future, was produced in 2018.

Arthur C. Clarke, in his 1953 story "Jupiter Five", referred to Bonestell's astronomical illustrations appearing in Life magazine in 1944. Robert A. Heinlein made Bonestell's name into a verb first in his 1958 juvenile Have Space Suit—Will Travel, then in his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land: "Opener: zoom in on Mars, using stock or bonestelled shots, unbroken sequence, then dissolving to miniature matched set of actual landing place of Envoy. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Tapestry", a young Captain Picard is involved in a fight with aliens at the Bonestell Recreation Facility, a spaceport named after the artist. This incident is first mentioned in the second season episode "Samaritan Snare". In chapter 35 of The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter and set in the year 2045, the character Douglas Black says that "this world was just like a Chesley Bonestell painting, and all of them save Mac had to look up that reference to see what he meant."

Miller, Ron and Frederick C. Durant III (1983), Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell, Walsworth Pub Co
Miller, Ron and Frederick C. Durant III (2001), The Art of Chesley Bonestell (Foreword by Melvin H. Schuetz), Paper Tiger
Schuetz, Melvin H. (1999), Chesley Bonestell Space Art Chronology, Universal Publishers
Schuetz, Melvin H. (2003), Supplement to A Chesley Bonestell Space Art Chronology Tuck, Donald H., ed. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy Volumes 1 and 2. Chicago: Advent Publications, Inc., 1974.