George Elbert Burr, born Monroe Falls, - (Sketchbook) (From Ouchy) - 1899 - T-Shirt

A quiet pencil study of a sailing boat on still lake water, with a line of mountains receding along the horizon.

Visual Elements & Composition

The design is drawn in simple graphite lines on warm off-white paper, which fills most of the page and gives the scene its open, airy feel. A calm expanse of water occupies the lower part of the view, and a sailing boat with two raised sails sits at the right, its reflection falling in soft vertical strokes beneath the hull. Loose hatching shades the mountain ridges along the horizon. A handwritten caption runs along the top edge, and the numeral 29 marks the page. Nothing is finished or heavily modelled, so the drawing reads as a direct, observational record.

Meaning & Symbolism

Burr's sketchbook served as a working notebook, where an artist recorded motifs and studied light and form on site for later use. This sheet, dated 1899 in the collection record, captures a lakeside view at Ouchy, the district of Lausanne on Lake Geneva. The boat, the still water and the distant peaks combine into a meditative image of travel and place, and the reflection gives the page its sense of stillness.

Calm Lines, Still Water

Because the artwork is a sketch rather than a full picture, it suits a shirt that is worn and seen up close. The restrained grey linework and open paper read as a quiet detail on the chest, letting the boat and mountains come into view as the wearer moves through the day. The lakeside scene carries the stillness of the original page onto the fabric.