Plate Number 590. "Clinton" ambling, bareback; rider nude

Art Historical Context

Eadweard Muybridge's *Plate Number 590. "Clinton" ambling bareback; rider nude (1887) captures a pivotal moment in the history of photography and motion studies. Part of Muybridge's groundbreaking *Animal Locomotion*, this collotype print depicts a horse named "Clinton in a gentle ambling gait, ridden bareback by a nude figure. Muybridge, a pioneering British-American photographer, produced 781 such plates between 1884 and 1887, using multiple cameras triggered in rapid succession to "freeze" movement, debunking myths about how animals—and humans—truly locomote. The nude rider emphasizes anatomical precision, a hallmark of Muybridge's scientific approach, influenced by his earlier work for Leland Stanford proving a trotting horse lifts all four hooves off the ground. Printed via collotype—a photomechanical process yielding exceptional tonal detail—this 14.6 × 46.9 cm image allowed wide dissemination of his findings to artists, scientists, and the public. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, it exemplifies how Muybridge's sequential photography bridged art and science, laying groundwork for cinema. Today, this work fascinates for its blend of raw naturalism and innovation, inviting viewers to ponder the poetry of motion in everyday acts like a horse's amble.

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...