Lot 27: Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) , Chronophotographic strip depicting a horse and rider, Early 1890s

26 frames of a chronophotographic strip, encased in modern buffering mount.

measurements note 6.3 x 5.8 cm (24¾ x 2¼ in.), the individual frames approx. 2.5 x 5.5 cm (1 x 2¼ in.)

For the best general discussion of the work of Marey cf. Braun, M. 1992, and in particular cf. the detailed listing of Marey's films on the subject of the horse, ib. pp. 381ff.
Dagognet, F. 1992, where there is a fascinating account of the importance of the horse as a subject for Marey at p. 66 ff.

The early researches into movement by the physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey were published starting with La Machine Animal (1863). His work attracted the interest of the California millionaire Leland Stanford, who as a direct result commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to investigate the movements of racehorses. Marey in turn was impressed by Muybridge's work and, from the late 1880s, Marey worked on improving his results in a series of experiments in what he called chronophotography.
Many sources give Marey as the inventor of the cinema, before the Lumière brothers.
Marey is not only a pioneer of the cinema. Many artists were influenced by his studies, from Meissonier (who actively sought his collaboration) to Marcel Duchamp (whose Nude Descending a Staircase of 1912 is one of many works directly inspired by Marey's researches). There are traces of Marey also, for example, in Italian Futurism.