One ofthe most significant elements

One ofthe most significant elements in Degas' work was his discovery of the photographs of the English-born photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, (1830-1904). Muybridge moved to America in the 1850s and, financed by a governor of California who was also a wealthy horse-breeder, began to photograph horses in such a manner as to record in a series of single photographs the sequential movement of the bodies in movement. In 1878, the first articles showing photographs of animals in motion were published. When seen in France, they caused a sensation, particularly among artists, who at once realized how far from the truth was the conventionalized way of showing horses in movement, with all four legs off the ground. Degas was fascinated and made studies from the photographs to learn how the horse moved, developed into three dimensions in his sculptural studies, but perhaps more importantly, they must have affirmed his belief in the significance of sequential poses as suggesting the passage oftime in a single static artwork. The separate photographs revealed the unpredictability and awkwardness of real-life movements.