Moritz Lowey, Pierre-Henri Puiseux

Moritz Lowey (French, 1833-1907) and Pierre-Henri Puiseux (French, 1855-1928).

• Héliogravure after photographs by Loewy and Puiseux depicting the Moon’s surface, from L'Atlas Photographique de la Lune.
• The finest and most meticulous image of the moon until the 1970s.
• Deemed worthy of exhibition at the Paris World Fair in 1900.
• L'Atlas Photographique de la Lune was the ultimate achievement of 19th-century astronomical photography, and can be regarded as one of the great publishing ventures of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Moritz Loewy and Pierre-Henri Puiseux, assisted by Charles Morvan, undertook a project to make a complete series of detailed photographs of the moon and the lunar surface. Their very best images were then published in L'Atlas photographique de la Lune. This was issued in fascicles in 1896 and 1910 by the Observatory of Paris; the atlas represents the best and most complete overview of the work of Loewy and Puiseux.
• The enlargements were used to decorate the showroom of the Ministère de l'Instruction Publique at the Exposition Universelle during the World's Fair, which was held in Paris in 1900.
• Framed and glazed.