Plate Number 350. Fencing

Art Historical Context

Eadweard Muybridge’s *Plate Number 350. Fencing* captures the fluid, precise movements of two fencers in a groundbreaking sequence of photographic studies. Created in 1887 as part of his monumental *Animal Locomotion* project, this collotype print freezes rapid action into twelve successive frames, revealing details of posture, balance, and gesture that the naked eye could not perceive. Muybridge’s methodical approach combined scientific rigor with artistic vision, transforming everyday athletic motion into a visual record that bridged art and empirical observation. The collotype medium was ideally suited to Muybridge’s work, allowing finely detailed reproduction of the original photographs on a large sheet measuring nearly two feet across. Each frame is carefully aligned to emphasize the progression of the duel, highlighting the tension and elegance of fencing as both sport and performance. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery the same year it was made, the print reflects the nineteenth-century fascination with time, movement, and the emerging possibilities of photography. Muybridge’s sequences influenced generations of artists, from painters like Thomas Eakins to early filmmakers, by demonstrating how the body moves through space. Today the image continues to invite viewers to slow down and appreciate the hidden beauty within a single, fleeting action.

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...