INTRODUCTION. 3 



To select examples which are of recent date, Parrocel, 

 Van der Meulen, Carl Vernet, etc., etc., in pictures of 

 very great merit, perpetually falsified truth. When they 

 represented hunters or chargers galloping, the animal 

 rises vigorously, with the anterior members equally bent, 

 the much inclined posterior still adhering to the ground 

 it is about to quit, by the pressure, with a single effort, 

 of the point of the toes of the two hind legs. 



The artist must have possessed great resolution, who 

 first broke with this routine that approached the prance 

 and leap, which have come down to our day from the old 

 masters, but prove absolutely inadequate for the action, 

 the expression of which is desired. 



Till now, it was permissible to urge the difficulty of 

 undeniably proving a rapid and high gait by analysis. 

 After the recent experiments, the results of which are 

 here detailed, there is no longer room for doubt. 

 Henceforth, the limitations within which his imagination 

 may select a truthful attitude, can be indicated with 

 certitude to him who is desirous of portraying the 

 interesting animal now engaging our attention. 



Every composition representing the horse, from the 

 calmest station to that of celerity strained to theutmost 

 intensity, is an accessory, the mechanical function of 

 which requires exactitude. In a word, the animal must 

 live before being animated. Once this be admitted, 

 nothing can be better than to control this exterior life 

 so as to give the expression of the conception by an 

 intelligent animation. 



Why should not the movements of animals be studied 

 as effectively as those of men — not in the studio, to which 

 they are unadapted, but by becoming acquainted with the 

 laws which direct them — in order to work with freedom 

 and to deserve the reliance which the spectator places 

 in the signer of the work of art ? 



A skilled riding master and learned professor, M. 

 Raabe, has several times given public lectures which 

 afforded full explanation to such sculptors and artists 

 as desired to instruct themselves. It is regrettable 

 that such special tuition is not further popularized. 



When requiring knowledge of the muscles and of the 

 natural attitudes of animals, I do not pretend that it is 



