Plate Number 438. Setting down a bucket and preparing to scrub
Medium
collotype
Dimensions
image: 29.8 × 25.5 cm (11 3/4 × 10 1/16 in.) sheet: 47.6 × 60.2 cm (18 3/4 × 23 11/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887)
Accession Number
2014.79.438
Art Historical Context
Eadweard Muybridge *Plate Number 438. down a bucket and preparing scrub* (1887) captures a fleeting moment of everyday motion, showcasing the pioneering photographer's obsession with dissecting human movement. Part of his monumental *Animal Locomotion* series—comprising 781 collotype plates—Muybridge froze a nude figure mid-action, revealing the subtle mechanics of bending, grasping, and preparing to scrub. This work emerged from his groundbreaking experiments at the University of Pennsylvania, where cameras synchronized with tripwires revolutionized visual science. Printed as a high-fidelity...
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...