Excerpt from The Gaits, Exterior and Proportions of the Horse

I am not ignoring the fact that the unchecked reproduction of a defective attitude, conventionally accepted for many years, is more easy; but, in the instance of the horse, I do not believe that, at our epoch, contentment should be permissible at the following reply, frequently made to me -what does the theory of animal locomotion matter? The sculptor and artist adopt what the public, the principal judge, is accustomed to accept as movement. The artist portrays a horse which appears to walk, and that suffices him.

This brings us back to the admission that we shall always rest under the influence of the not very consolatory phrase of the American philosopher, Emerson: The public above all else demands conformity. It has little affection for realities, but much for conventions and customs.

Therefore, it is the public who must be enlightened, since it is they who see and observe.

So far as all connected with the representation of animals is concerned, everything has remained stationary for a long time past. Custom recapitulated the vitality of movement in certain positions of the members, convention compelling the draughtsman to confine himself within the limitations of this restricted animation. N ow progress in this respect must be pointed out. Some have even attained to the mathematical observation of the gaits.

Dr. Marey, quite recently, in a lecture at the Sorbonne, detailed to his auditors experiments made upon the gaits of the horse. The learned physiologist who has succeeded in the circumscription of the rhythm of the imprints in a graphic notation, affirmed that, the artists who, at the present day, make such laudable endeavours to correctly delineate the horse, can derive great benefit from a process which offers the double advantage of representing the gaits with exactitude, as well as the numerous variations of outline.

This would be a valuable expedient for truthful representations; for imperfection in art is not solely dependent upon errors which may be committed, as often an artist, when acquainted with an attitude which to him appears exact, repeats it with lamentable monotony.

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