Plate Number 377. Two blacksmiths, hammering on anvil

Art Historical Context

Eadweard Muybridge’s *Plate Number 377. Two blacksmiths, hammering on anvil* captures a precise instant of human labor in 1887. The image freezes two figures mid-swing, their hammers poised above a glowing anvil, revealing the coordinated rhythm of their work. As part of Muybridge’s groundbreaking motion studies, the photograph distills complex movement into a single, readable frame that rewards close looking. Muybridge, already celebrated for his sequential photography of animals and people, used banks of cameras and precise timing to document everyday actions. This collotype print—made from his original negatives—allowed the subtle textures of leather aprons, wooden handles, and flying sparks to be reproduced with remarkable clarity. The sheet’s generous size further invites viewers to examine the mechanics of the body in action. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery the same year it was published, the work sits at the intersection of science and art. It helped lay the foundation for modern understandings of movement while demonstrating photography’s power to expand what the eye can see.

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...