70 THE PROBLEM OF THE GALLOPING HORSE 



diagram demonstrating what " is " rather than what is 

 "seen" or is "thought to have been seen." 



On these grounds I find that the most satisfactory 

 pictures of the galloping horse are those which combine a 

 phase of the movement of the front legs with a phase of 

 the movement of the hind legs, not simultaneous in actual 

 occurrence, but following one another. It is for the 

 artist to select the combination best suited to producing 

 the mental result aimed at. Some of the Chinese and 

 Japanese representations of the galloping horse and some 

 of their European imitations (but not all certainly not 

 that of Stubbs, of the Epsom Derby of Gericault, and the 

 racing plates) seem to me to be eminently satisfactory and 

 successful in this respect. In the pictures to which I 

 allude (PL III, figs. 3 and 5) all the legs are off the 

 ground ; the front legs are advanced, but one or both may 

 be more or less flexed, whilst the hind legs, though 

 directed backwards with upturned hoofs, are not nearly 

 horizontal (as they actually are in the galloping dog), but 

 show the moderate extension which really occurs in the 

 horse, and is recorded by instantaneous photography. 

 This pose, favoured by many European and Japanese 

 artists, can be obtained by uniting the outstretched hind 

 legs of fig. 9 of the Muybridge series (PL I), with the 

 outstretched forelegs of fig. 6, as shown in PL I, fig. I 2, 

 or by uniting the hind legs of fig. 10 with the forelegs of 

 fig. 4 as shown in PL III, fig. I. 



With regard to the representation of other " gaits " of 

 the horse than that of the rapid gallop such as canter, 

 trot, amble, rack, and walk I have no doubt that instan- 

 taneous photography can (and in practice does) furnish 

 the painter with perfectly correct and at the same time 

 useful and satisfactory poses of the horse's limbs. These, 

 though of longer duration than the poses of the gallop, 

 can only be correctly estimated by the eye with great 



