Fountainhead: The Architectural Renderings

Harold Michelson

Chesley Bonestell 

Harold Michelson

Chesley Bonestell 

Harold Michelson

Chesley Bonestell 

Harold Michelson

Chesley Bonestell 

Harold Michelson

Harold Michelson

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell studied architecture at Columbia University in New York City. Dropping out in his third year, he worked as a renderer and designer for several of the leading architectural firms of the time. While with William van Alen, he and Warren Straton designed the Art Deco façade of the Chrysler Building as well as its distinctive eagles. During this same period, he designed the Plymouth Rock Memorial, the U.S. Supreme Court Building, the New York Central Building, Manhattan office and apartment buildings and several state capitols.

Returning to the West Coast, he prepared illustrations of the chief engineer's plans for the Golden Gate Bridge for the benefit of funders. When the Great Depression dried up architectural work in the United States, Bonestell went to England, where he rendered architectural subjects for the Illustrated London News. In the late 1930s he moved to Hollywood, where he worked (without screen credit) as a special effects artist, creating matte paintings for films, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942).

All the views of turn-of-the-century New York and of Charles Foster Kane's mansion, Xanadu, are Bonestell's artwork. In The Fountainhead, Bonestell in a sense was Howard Roark -- all of the buildings created by Ayn Rand's superheroic architect are by Bonestell. He eventually became Hollywood's highest-paid matte artist.

Chesley Bonestell 

Chesley Bonestell