Plate Number 359. Charging bayonet
Medium
collotype
Dimensions
image: 18.6 × 41.1 cm (7 5/16 × 16 3/16 in.) sheet: 48.4 × 61.1 cm (19 1/16 × 24 1/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887)
Accession Number
2015.19.4114
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Eadweard Muy's *Plate Number 359. Charging Bayonet* (1887) captures a dramatic moment of human motion, part of his revolutionary *Animal Locomotion*. A pioneer in chronophotography, Muy used multiple cameras triggered in rapid succession to freeze and sequence movement, debunking myths about how bodies move—like the galloping horse. Here, a soldier lunges forward with bayonet fixed, his form dissected across 12 frames on a single sheet, revealing the raw kinetics of combat readiness. Printed as a collotype—a meticulous photomechanical process that faithfully reproduces fine details—this 48.4 ...
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...