Painter John Berkey was unquestionably one of the leading figures working during the golden era of science fiction. Most identified with his posters for the original Star Wars film, Berkey’s work was instrumental creating the image we have in our minds eye when we picture “outer space.” A prolific illustrator of sci-fi book covers, the technically adept artist also was employed by everyone from Popular Mechanics to Time magazine and even NASA to create cutting edge technologically forward looking illustrations. This original casein on board painting shows a far future earth seen as a desert world with a monstrous warship hovering above it in the foreground. The piece appeared as the cover of the 1990s Tor omnibus paperback Tales of the Dying Earth which collected the full fantasy series by Jack Vance in one volume. The work is simply framed and signed lower right.