Plate Number 381. Mason, laying a brick

Art Historical Context

Behold *Plate Number 381. Mason, laying a brick (1887), a captivating collotype print by pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge.ured as part of his groundbreaking *Animal Locomotion* series, this freezes a laborer in mid-motion, meticulously laying a brick in a sequence that reveals the fluid mechanics of everyday work. Muybridge, famed for proving a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off the ground, extended his chronophotographic experiments to human activities, using a battery of up to 24 cameras triggered by the subject to dissect movement into precise instants. The collotype medium—a finely detailed photomechanical process—allowed Muybridge to reproduce these high-fidelity motion studies at scale, making complex scientific imagery accessible to scholars, artists, and the public. Measuring 19.8 × 37.85 cm, this plate exemplifies 19th-century innovation at the intersection of art and science, influencing early filmmakers like the Lumière brothers and modern animation. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery in 1887 and now in the National Gallery of Art's collection, it reminds us how Muybridge transformed photography from static portraiture into a dynamic tool for understanding the body in action—a testament to human ingenuity in both labor and lens craft.

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...