Alma Thomas, born Columbus, GA 1891-died Washington, DC 1978 Search this
Medium:
acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:
47 7/8 x 47 7/8 in. (121.6 x 121.6 cm.)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1970
Exhibition Label:
In Snoopy Sees Earth Wrapped in Sunset, Thomas’s reverence for the beauty of living things expands to a planetary scale. Captivated by astronauts’ accounts of seeing Earth from outer space, Thomas portrayed our planet enlivened by the reflected light of the sun.
“Snoopy” was the nickname for the Apollo 8 lunar module, a reference to the Peanuts comic strip character (who was also a NASA mascot) and the module’s job of flying around the moon to “snoop” for a promising landing site. Thomas would likely have seen the widely circulated photograph taken from “Snoopy” as it orbited the moon. Known as Earthrise, the image shows a partly illuminated, vibrant Earth as it rises above the surface of the moon.
