Plate Number 252. Kneeling on right knee and scrubbing the floor
Medium
collotype
Dimensions
image: 18.5 × 42.3 cm (7 5/16 × 16 5/8 in.) sheet: 48.3 × 61.2 cm (19 × 24 1/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887)
Accession Number
2014.79.283
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, pioneering photographer Eadweard Muy captured the subtle mechanics of human movement like never before. *Plate Number 252: Kneeling on Right Knee and Scrubbing the Floor*1887) is one such image from his monumental *Animal Locomotion* series, depicting a woman in a poised, everyday pose mid-task. This collotype print—measuring 18.5 × 42.3 cm—freezes a sequence of motion across multiple frames, revealing the body's natural rhythm in domestic labor. Muybridge's work revolutionized visual science and art, proving that photography could dissect motion with unprecedented p...
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...