Mare Humorum
1881-1882
French astronomer and artist Étienne Léopold Trouvelot spent countless nights sketching the moon through his telescope, creating images so precise they rivaled early photographs. This 1875 study of Mare Humorum, or the 'Sea of Humors,' looks less like a celestial body and more like a bubbling, alien landscape filled with deep craters and swirling, organic ridges. While his astronomical art was celebrated for its beauty and accuracy, Trouvelot is perhaps most infamous today for a completely different legacy: he accidentally introduced the destructive gypsy moth to North America while attempting to breed silk worms!
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