Lot 384

20th C. Alan Bean Signed Lithograph - "Locking Up the Rocks" Apollo 11

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Lot 384
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20th C. Alan Bean Signed Lithograph - "Locking Up the Rocks" Apollo 11
20th C. Alan Bean Signed Lithograph - "Locking Up the Rocks" Apollo 11
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20th C. Alan Bean Signed Lithograph - "Locking Up the Rocks" Apollo 11

Estimate: $600 - $900

Starting Bid: $250

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 7, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Alan Bean (American, 1932-2018). "Locking Up the Rocks" color lithograph, 1989. Hand-signed at lower right below plate. Ca. 1989 CE. A color lithograph after the painting by Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the Moon and the only fine artist to have stood on another world. The composition shows an astronaut, identified as Neil Armstrong, crouched in the deep shadow of the lunar module as he activates a locking lever to seal a sample-return container, its knife edge biting into the soft indium lining to hold the Moon rocks in vacuum for the journey home. Behind him, the sunlit regolith of the Sea of Tranquility glows in bright counterpoint to the figure half-lost in darkness. Hand-signed in pencil below the plate at lower right, with a printed caption identifying the scene. Issued in the "Aviation Inspirations" series for Associated Aviation Underwriters, the print is accompanied by a cellulose vellum text sheet recounting the Apollo 11 mission. Size of image: 19.75" W x 21" H (50.2 cm W x 53.3 cm H); of paper: 25" W x 28" H (63.5 cm W x 71.1 cm H).

About the artist: Alan Bean (1932-2018) was a naval aviator, test pilot, NASA astronaut, and painter who became the fourth human being to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969. Born in Wheeler, Texas, he earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin before rising through naval aviation to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, where his instructor was his future Apollo 12 commander, Pete Conrad. Bean logged more than seven hours on the lunar surface across two excursions on the Ocean of Storms, later commanded the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, and retired from NASA in 1981 with 1,671 hours in space. In retirement he turned fully to painting, working Moon dust from his mission patches into his canvases and texturing surfaces with the same hammer used to plant the flag in lunar soil. His works remain the only fine art made by someone who walked on the Moon.

Of this composition Bean wrote that he deliberately set Armstrong in the lunar module's shadow, a departure from his usual sun-struck space suits: "this total shadow effect worked beautifully, with Neil somewhat dark and colorful in shadow and the Sea of Tranquility a bright counterpoint." The sample boxes he depicts were each milled from a single piece of aluminum and sealed by a knife edge pressed into an indium ring, securing the rocks in vacuum for their quarter-million-mile trip to Earth.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection

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Item # 203333

  • Condition: Slight folding to corners of print, but, otherwise, very nice with good imagery and pigments. Hand-signed below plate. Accompanied by custom envelope and cellulose vellum sheet. Some folding, light scratches, and cockling to cellulose vellum sheet, but text is still clear.

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$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000