Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, born Manlius - Mt. of Temptation - unknown - T-Shirt

A pencil and wash landscape of the steep, terraced Mount of Temptation rising above a green band of trees, drawn in warm buff tones.

Visual Elements & Composition

The steep hill fills the left edge, its face built from fine parallel pencil hatching and ridges picked out in graphite. To the right, a dense mass of trees and shrubs is washed in sage green, with pale highlights where light catches a low wall or ledge. Soft, receding hills step back toward the right edge beneath a hazy, pale sky. The palette stays close to parchment tan, with olive brown and pencil grey carrying the darkest lines. Lettering at the lower left names the hill, and a note at the lower right records the place and date, Apl 2 1844.

Meaning & Symbolism

The Mount of Temptation is a limestone height above the plain near Jericho, traditionally identified with Christ's fasting in the wilderness. Its rock-cut terraces made it a recognisable landmark for travellers moving through the Jordan valley. Here the barren hillside meets a fertile, tree-lined foreground, so the scene reads as a place where wilderness gives way to cultivated land. Miner Kilbourne Kellogg, born in Manlius, New York, worked in pencil and wash on journeys through the Near East in the 1840s. Sketches like this one were made outdoors and documented the landmarks and vegetation that Western travellers encountered.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

This is a drawing built from small hatched strokes and soft washes, so it rewards a close look at chest height, where the fine linework and the hazy sky can be read up close. The hill runs down the left side of the shirt, and the green trees sit in the lower right, giving the composition a clear path from the rock face to the open distance.