GODDARD, ROBERT HUTCHINGS. 1882-1945.
Mount Ruidoso, New Mexico, August 12, 1940, oil on board, 420 x 600 mm, signed lower right "R.H. Goddard, 1940," annotations on back of frame in Esther Goddard's hand ("Baldy, in the Sierra Blanca range," etc.), framed.
A PAINTING BY THE FATHER OF MODERN ROCKET PROPULSION. On March 16, 1926, at Auburn, MA, Goddard successfully launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, an event as significant to history as that of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. In 1929, Goddard equipped one of his rockets with a camera for the first time, in essence preempting by two decades photography from space.
Goddard relocated to Roswell, New Mexico, in 1930 after securing funding from the Guggenheim family that allowed him to continue his rocketry experiments. In 1937 one of his L-series rockets reached an altitude of over 8,000 feet. Goddard "delighted in the wonderful experience of painting," according to a friend (quoted in Clary p 172), and examples of his paintings are held by Clark University in Worcester, MA.
Illustrated: Papers of Robert H. Goddard, p 1348.