Woman Throwing Handkerchief in Air, Picking It Up, from the book Animal Locomotion

Art Historical Context

Behold *Woman Throwing Handkerchief in, Picking It Up*, a captivating photograph from Eadweard Muybridge groundbreaking 1887 publication *Animal Locomotion*. Muybridge, a pioneering photographer in the late 19th century, visual arts by capturing motion in unprecedented detail. Commissioned initially to settle a bet about whether all four hooves of a horse leave the ground during a gallop, his work expanded into exhaustive studies of human and animal movement, producing over 780 plates like this one. This sequential photoprint depicts a woman in mid-action—tossing a handkerchief skyward and gracefully retrieving it—frozen across multiple frames. Using a battery of 12 to 24 cameras triggered by electromagnetic shutters, Muybridge dissected everyday gestures into their elemental phases, blending science and art. Printed as a collotype, it exemplifies the technical precision of his era, bridging photography's static nature with the fluidity of life. Housed in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (gift of Paul and Laurette Laessle), this piece underscores Muybridge's legacy: influencing early filmmakers like Edison and modern motion capture technology. It's a delightful window into Victorian curiosity about the body in motion, inviting us to marvel at the poetry hidden in a simple throw.

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...