Plate Number 340. Boxing, open hand

Art Historical Context

Step into the groundbreaking world of motion capture with *Plate Number 340. Boxing, open hand* by Eadweard Muybridge, created in 1887. This collotype print is part of Muybridge's monumental *Animal Locomotion* series a pioneering study of human and animal movement using sequential photography. Capturing a nude male figure in dynamic boxing poses—mid-punch with an open hand—the image freezes a rapid sequence of actions, revealing the fluidity and anatomy of athletic motion invisible to the naked eye. Muybridge, a British-American photographer, revolutionized visual science in the late 19th century with his chronophotographic techniques. Using multiple cameras triggered in rapid succession, he debunked myths about locomotion (famously proving that horses lift all four hooves off the ground while galloping). The collotype medium, a precise photomechanical printing process, allowed for high-fidelity reproductions of these 781 plates, distributed to scientists, artists, and the public. Measuring 23.5 × 32.5 cm, this plate exemplifies how Muybridge's work bridged photography, art, and early cinema, influencing pioneers like Marcel Duchamp and the birth of film. Today, housed in the National Gallery of Art's Corcoran Collection, it reminds us of photography's power to dissect time, offering a window into Victorian-era fascination with the body in motion and the dawn of modern visual media.

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...