In 1918 , Butler 's association with Carnegie led to him being invited to witness and record the 1918 Solar eclipse that was observed from Baker City in Oregon . The expedition was organised by the U.S. Naval Observatory and included Samuel Alfred Mitchell as its expert on eclipses . Butler noted later that he used a system of taking notes of the colours using skills he had learnt for transient effects . Usually a sitting for a portrait took two hours but an eclipse would take just over 112 seconds . It has been noted that he had painted Carnegie thirteen times and like the eclipse he could never keep still to allow Butler to make considered notes . His revived interest in physics led to his 1923 book of '' Painter and Space '' which coincided with his second visit to a solar eclipse . He also created pictures of planets that were as seen from one of their moons . His last known eclipse visit was in 1932
1918 Solar eclipse
Solar eclipse of June 8, 1918
Howard Russell Butler