1884 (negative); printed later

Motion Study---Boy Jumping to the Right

American, 1844 - 1916

Attracted to the scientific aspects of photography, Eakins recorded human locomotion and anatomy in his motion studies. He worked alongside Eadweard Muybridge at the University of Pennsylvania in 1884 and 1885, experimenting with the mechanisms and processes to capture movement. By exposing multiple images on a single plate, Eakins recorded the elapsed time and velocity of his moving subjects. While most of the artist's motion studies were never published, he demonstrated his pride in this experiment by showing a photograph similar to this one at the exhibition of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1886.