Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, born Manlius - Dromedary Saddle-Studies - n.d. - T-Shirt

A pencil sheet of separate studies, centred on a fringed dromedary saddle and gathered around architectural capitals, carved ornament and robed figures.

Visual Elements & Composition

The sheet is drawn in graphite grey on pale parchment cream, which fills most of the field. At the centre, the saddle is shown in three-quarter view with a padded seat, two upright knobs at the pommel and long fringed tassels hanging from the sides and rear, labelled “Dromedary Saddle.” Above it, a rider on a kneeling animal sits in outline near the top centre. A columned capital with a stepped abacus rises from a slender shaft at the right, while carved panels and scrolled ornament fill the upper corners. At the lower left, a standing figure in a loose robe and small cap holds a long staff, with two more robed figures to the left. Each drawing keeps its own space, so the sheet reads as a set rather than a single scene.

Meaning & Symbolism

The dromedary, or riding camel, was the principal mount of desert travel across Egypt, Sinai and Arabia, and the fringed saddle is a detail of that journey rather than of any one monument. Set beside architectural fragments and the figures met along the road, the sheet shows a traveller gathering the forms of a journey together: the equipment of the road, the people encountered on it and the monuments seen on the way. Its lack of one subject is the point. It is a record of what Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, an American painter born in Manlius, New York, saw in his travels in Egypt and the Near East, and what he wished to remember. The study dates from the 19th century.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A sheet of studies suits a shirt because it is seen up close and in motion. The saddle sits at the centre of the chest, with the column, the carved panels and the robed figures arranged around it, so the drawings read as the traveller’s notebook worn on the body. Each fragment can be picked out as you move, and the pale parchment tone keeps the graphite lines crisp against the garment.