Plate Number 350. Fencing
Medium
collotype
Dimensions
image: 21.4 × 34.8 cm (8 7/16 × 13 11/16 in.) sheet: 48.5 × 61.3 cm (19 1/8 × 24 1/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887)
Accession Number
2015.19.4113
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Eadweard Muybridge’s *Plate Number 350. Fencing* captures the fluid, precise movements of two fencers in a groundbreaking sequence of photographic studies. Created in 1887 as part of his monumental *Animal Locomotion* project, this collotype print freezes rapid action into twelve successive frames, revealing details of posture, balance, and gesture that the naked eye could not perceive. Muybridge’s methodical approach combined scientific rigor with artistic vision, transforming everyday athletic motion into a visual record that bridged art and empirical observation. The collotype medium was i...
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...