Plate Number 449. Feeding a dog

Art Historical Context

Step into the pioneering world of motion photography with *Plate Number 449. a Dog* (1887), a collotype print by Eadweard Muy. This captivating image captures a sequence of a nude woman bending to feed a dog, freezing everyday motion into 12 precise frames across a panoramic sheet measuring 47.3 × 60.3 cm. Muybridge, a British-American photographer, revolutionized visual arts through his chronophotographic experiments, proving that sequential images could dissect animal and human movement like never before. Part of the monumental *Animal Locomotion* series—comprising 781 plates produced with University of Pennsylvania support—this work exemplifies Muybridge's innovative use of multiple cameras triggered in rapid succession. Commissioned to settle debates on quadruped gaits (famously debunking the idea that a trotting horse's legs never all leave the ground), the series blended scientific rigor with artistic elegance. Collotype, a photomechanical process yielding exceptional detail and tonal range, allowed mass reproduction of these high-speed exposures, originally made on glass plates. Displayed in the National Gallery of Art's CPH Department (acquired via the New Century Fund), this plate highlights cultural shifts toward objective observation in the late 19th century. Muybridge's legacy endures in cinema, animation, and biomechanics, inviting us to marvel at the poetry hidden in split-second actions. (198 words)

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...