Paul Arlt, 91; Artist Who Painted Space Launches for NASA

Paul Arlt, 91, a painter and political cartoonist whose work was exhibited at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, died Tuesday of unspecified causes at his home in Rye, N.Y.

A native of New York who spent much of his life in Washington, D.C., Arlt created watercolors of several of the capital’s landmarks. He also drew editorial cartoons for the New York Herald Tribune.

The U.S. Treasury Department commissioned him to paint a mural for the post office of Enterprise, Ala., in 1940, which is now displayed in the city’s public library. During World War II, Arlt was a combat artist in the Marine Corps, recording events in drawings and paintings. He received a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound.

NASA commissioned him to paint and draw the Gemini space launch at Cape Kennedy and various tracking stations. That artwork is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum and at Kennedy Space Center. His other work is represented at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art.