Plate Number 335. Boxing with gloves

Art Historical Context

Step into the dynamic world of motion captured in *Plate Number 335. Boxing with Gloves by Eadweard Muybridge, created in 1887 as part of his monumental *Animal Locomotion*. This collotype print, measuring about 9½ × 12½ inches on a larger 19 × 24-inch sheet, freezes a sequence of two boxers in padded gloves mid-action—punching, dodging, and circling one another. Muybridge, a British-born photographer who settled in America, revolutionized visual perception by using banks of up to 24 cameras triggered by electromagnetic shutters, dissecting everyday movements into precise, split-second frames. The artwork's historical significance lies in Muybridge's pioneering chronophotography, which bridged still photography and early cinema. Commissioned initially by Leland Stanford to settle a bet about whether a trotting horse ever lifts all four hooves off the ground, Muybridge's work expanded to over 780 plates of humans and animals in motion, including sports like boxing. Produced via collotype—a photomechanical process prized for its fidelity to subtle tones—this plate exemplifies how Muybridge made the invisible visible, influencing artists like Marcel Duchamp and filmmakers like the Lumière brothers. Today, housed in the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, it invites us to marvel at the athletic grace of 19th-century pugilism while pondering technology's power to redefine reality. A testament to curiosity and innovation, it reminds visitors that every punch tells a story of human endeavor.

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...