Plate Number 320. Lifting a 50-lb. dumbbell
Medium
collotype
Dimensions
image: 16.2 × 45.2 cm (6 3/8 × 17 13/16 in.) sheet: 48.2 × 61.2 cm (19 × 24 1/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887)
Accession Number
2014.79.345
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Eadweard Muybridge’s *Plate Number 320. Lifting a 50-lb. dumbbell* (1887) captures a man performing a weightlifting exercise through a rapid sequence of photographs. Part of his groundbreaking *Animal Locomotion* series, the work reveals the subtle phases of human movement that the naked eye cannot perceive. Muybridge, a pioneering photographer and motion-study innovator, used banks of cameras triggered in quick succession to freeze action, transforming everyday gestures into scientific and artistic records. Printed as a collotype—a high-quality photographic printing process favored for its rich tonal detail—this plate was originally published in an ambitious portfolio that bridged art, science, and physical education. The elongated format emphasizes the continuous arc of the lift, inviting viewers to study posture, balance, and muscular effort frame by frame. Today the image stands as both an early milestone in the history of cinema and a compelling portrait of late-nineteenth-century interest in the body’s mechanics. Visitors can appreciate how Muybridge turned a simple exercise into a timeless exploration of motion itself.
About the Artist
Eadweard Muybridge · 1830–1904
Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) was an English-American photographer who revolutionized the understanding of motion through his pioneering chronophotographic studies. Born Edward James Muggeridge in Kingston upon Thames, England, he emigrated to America and became famous first for his dramatic landscape photographs of Yosemite Valley, then for his groundbreaking motion studies that proved horses li...