1887 – Marey's Movement Sculptures

Bronze sculpture showing the phases of the flight of birds, created by French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey in 1887 based on photographs. Étienne-Jules Marey was a pioneer in the study of dynamic phenomena and invented a variety of scientific and medical instruments, photography techniques, and temporal visualization methods. A wealth of information is available about him online.

Also see our entry on Peter Jansen's movement sculptures, inspired from his work.

Sources:

1. Russel Naughton (2007) Aviation and Aeromodeling History - Étienne-Jules Marey (1830 - 1904).
2. Wikipedia article on Etienne-Jules Marey.
3. Marey (1890) Psychologie du mouvement - Le vol des oiseaux.
4. Left image from www.histoire-image.org. Right image from Russell Naughton.