In this moody yet nostalgic casein-on-board illustration painting, the artist John Berkey, best remembered today as one of the leading figures of the golden era of science fiction, shows his versatility. Most identified with his posters for the original Star Wars film, Berkey was a technically brilliant commercial illustrator and his vision is what we see in our minds eye when we picture “outer space.” A prolific illustrator of sci-fi book covers, the artist also was employed to paint the cutting edge of technology by everyone from Popular Mechanics to Time Magazine and even NASA.

This example, which uses a loose style, and showcases a retro, pulp fiction take on America, departs in many ways stylistically from his science fiction work while still evoking mood and scene through the muted yet expressive color palette associated with the artist.  Signed lower right, we are certain this is an illustration commission, though we have not identified the usage.