A walk around the observatories, drawn by Sylvain Cnudde
In this new exhibition, Sylvain Cnudde takes us on a poetic journey through some of France’s most illustrious observatories, witness to centuries of pioneering astrophysical research that has won worldwide acclaim.
His drawings, sometimes in watercolour, sometimes in Indian ink, pencil or digital paint, reveal the majestic infrastructures, unique instruments and modern experiments that animate the three campuses of the Observatoire de Paris-PSL : Paris, Meudon and Nançay, as well as the Observatoire de Marseille and the Observatoire de Haute-Provence.
With his pen, Sylvain tells us the extraordinary story of these places, where mankind is seeking to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.
About the designer
Sylvain Cnudde is a graphic designer at the Laboratoire d’Instrumentation et de Recherche en Astrophysique (LIRA) at the Observatoire de Paris - PSL. Ever since he was a child, he’s been drawing : with a pencil, with a felt-tip pen, with anything he can get his hands on. And he draws everywhere : at school, at home or on the walls of his bedroom. Even then, he wanted to get away from the confines of a sheet of paper. After a year in applied arts at the École Estienne in Paris and a BTS in visual communications in Montreuil, he went on to earn a licence-pro in communications, IT and multimedia, which led to the post of graphic designer he still holds at LIRA in Meudon. During his training, he filled sketchbooks with what he observed in the streets, on public transport, in waiting rooms and cafés.
To find out more
- Link to the exhibition Observatoires astronomiques - Balade dessinée de Paris en Provence
- Link to the Paris Observatory - PSL exhibitions
- Link to the Paris Observatory Digital Library - PSL
