Plate Number 63. Running at full speed
Medium
collotype
Dimensions
image: 23.1 × 31.3 cm (9 1/8 × 12 5/16 in.) sheet: 48 × 61.2 cm (18 7/8 × 24 1/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, 1887)
Accession Number
2015.19.4101
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Eadweard Muybridge’s *Plate Number 63. Running at full speed* (1887) belongs to his groundbreaking *Animal Locomotion* series, a systematic photographic study of human and animal movement. Using banks of cameras triggered in rapid succession, Muybridge froze actions too swift for the naked eye, revealing the precise mechanics of a runner’s stride. This particular plate captures the dynamic sequence in crisp detail, transforming an ordinary motion into a scientific record. Printed as a collotype—a high-quality photographic reproduction process favored for its tonal range—the sheet measures nearly two feet across, allowing viewers to study each frame side by side. Acquired by the Corcoran Gallery the same year it was published, the work reflects the late-nineteenth-century fascination with empirical observation and the emerging technology of instantaneous photography. Muybridge’s images helped lay the foundation for modern cinema and continue to influence artists and scientists interested in the body in motion. Today they remain both precise documents and striking visual compositions that bridge art and investigation.
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...