Plate Number 356. Kneeling, firing and rising

Art Historical Context

Eadweard Muybridge *Plate Number 356.eling, firing and rising (1887) is a captivating entry from his groundbreaking *Animal Locomotion* series, a project of 781 collotype plates that revolutionized the study of motion. Produced at the University of Pennsylvania, these images captured sequential photographs of humans and animals in action using multiple cameras triggered in rapid succession. Muybridge, a British-born famed for proving in 1872 that a trotting horse lifts all four hooves off the ground, extended his chronophotographic innovations to dissect everyday and athletic movements with scientific precision. This collotype print—measuring 23.6 × 31.7 cm on a larger 48.4 × 61.2 cm sheet—freezes a dynamic sequence of a nude male figure transitioning from a kneeling position, firing what appears to be a rifle, and rising fluidly. Collotype, a photomechanical process prized for its tonal fidelity, allowed mass production of these high-quality images, bridging art, science, and emerging cinema. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery in 1887 and now in the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, it exemplifies Muybridge's influence on modern photography, film, and even animation. Today, this plate invites visitors to ponder the beauty in dissected motion, foreshadowing motion pictures and inspiring artists like Marcel Duchamp. A testament to 19th-century curiosity, it reveals how photography captured the invisible rhythm of life.

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...