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This photo-realistic picture presented in this listing is the original sketch of the famous Russian "space artist" Andrey Sokolov named "Greece. Summer. The first half of the day" with a great history.
This sketch is one of the family of "space views sketches" what Sokolov drew on thin flexible canvas using his knowledge of geography, light, perspective etc, as a view of the Earth from the orbit. He put north direction arrow on this sketch - see letter "N" in white near the arrow. Sokolov's purpose was to make sure he drew everything correct, so, Sokolov gave this sketch to the cosmonauts - crew members of Soyuz TM-12 - Artsebarsky, Krikalev, Sharman, who brought this sketch in space onboard orbital station MIR where they compared Sokolov's "artistic view" with the reality together with the crew members of Soyuz TM-13 - the cosmonauts Aubakirov, Viehbock, Volkov, Soyuz TM-14 - the cosmonauts Viktorenko, Kaleri, Flade, Soyuz TM-15 - the cosmonauts Solovyev, Avdeev, Tognini. These cosmonauts noted some improvements for Sokolov to correct the sketch for lighting, colors, shapes, atmosphere effects and perspectives.
Later, after correction, Sokolov used such sketches for his space art paintings.
Size of the sketch - about 11.6x15.8 inches.
Condition - very good. Click on the picture to supersize it.
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The sketch has been supposedly flown in space! It has 4 onboard stamps of orbital station MIR and the signatures of the crew members of Soyuz TM-12, Soyuz TM-13, Soyuz TM-14 and Soyuz TM-15 missions.
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Provenance. The sketch came from the estate of the other artist, who was also the member of Russian Union of Artists. He collaborated with Sokolov and Leonov in some projects. This artist asked not to publish his name or spread it anyway regardng this sale.
The exact date when the sketch has been done is unknown, but it's supposedly in 1990-1991, not far prior the Soyuz TM-12 launch.
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The author Andrey Sokolov was born in 1931 in Leningrad in the former USSR. His father was one of the leading developers of the Soviet launch facility Baikonur. Educated as architect and studied art in Moscow Architectural Institute, Sokolov participated in art exhibitions since 1955 as science fiction artist. Since childhood the artist liked fiction of Jules Verne, Belyaeva, Tsiolkovsky, Bradbury. Sokolov devoted his first sci-fi paintings to Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451". After the launch of Sputnik in 1957 all his creativity was directed to the theme of space exploration.
He worked closely with the cosmonauts, particularly with his friend cosmonaut Alexey Leonov who has collaborated with Sokolov on a number of projects, assisting with the realistic depiction of views from orbit as the one who has seen them. Sokolov was a member of the Russian Union of Artists where he became The Chairman of the Cosmic Group. He had numerous exhibitions in the Soviet Union and abroad, including the U.S., West Germany, Holland and Japan. His art works have been published in many books and magazines, including Air and Space, and in seven books of his own (some done in collaboration with Alexey Leonov). Many Sokolov's paintings were used for the Soviet posters, postcards and postal stamps. As enormously prolific artist, Andrey Sokolov often made several versions or "concepts" of his paintings. This well-known fact is proved by numerous different versions of paintings made by Sokolov for stamps. See samples here.
Sokolov worked in active cooperation with cosmonauts in the creation of his sketches of "space views". Sokolov prepared a sketch of some region on Earth that he knew a cosmonaut crew would be passing over while in orbit. Using his vast and expert knowledge of light, color, perspective, and geography, he tried to depict what the cosmonauts would see as accurately as he could. Those sketches were done on a light, flexible canvas that can be rolled or folded. On space left for the purpose, the cosmonauts were able to make notes, comparing Sokolov's view with reality. Using these critiques, Sokolov was able to render his final painting with great accuracy.
Andrey Sokolov died in March 2007. His works are presented in many museums and private collections. For example, The National Air and Space Museum, a part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has the collection of works by Sokolov and Leonov.
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