The Brotherhood of Ruralists Information Website Artists' Catalogue Entry |
Artist: Graham Arnold Title: Venus on the Sun Medium: Oil on board with collage Size: 43cm x 33cm Source: {B21} Date: 1976 |
Exhibited Graham Arnold Graham Arnold - A Retrospectve Graham Arnold - 70th Birthday Exhibition |
Supplementary Information In the lower right quarter of the work is a painting of the Sun on which the planet Venus can be seen as a small dot. The work bears the following inscription by the artist: "Venus on the Sun Drawn by Trouvelot at Harvard College, Cambridge, U.S. in the year 1874 and copied by me in 1976 at Devizes in Wiltshire Graham Arnold 1976".
Etienne Leopold Trouvelot (1827-1895) was a French artist who was exiled to the USA in 1855. He had an amateur interest in entomology but later turned his attention to astromony eventually taking up a post at Harvard, where he made numerous drawings of astronomical phenomena. The observation of Venus on the Sun is generally referred to as the 'Transit of Venus'. Six transits have been observed since the invention of the telescope (c. 1609): 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882, and the most recent on 8 June 2004. The next occurrence is in 2012. |
| Artist CatalogueWorks 1971-1980 |
| The Brotherhood of Ruralists Information Website |
