Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Arm Studies, #2 - 1895 - T-Shirt

This pen and ink study sheet shows five separate studies of the human arm, raised, bent and extended, drawn by the American sculptor Solon Borglum in 1895.

Visual Elements & Composition

The sheet is built from cream paper and sepia black ink, with warm grey in the shadows. Each arm is drawn on its own and cropped at the edges, so no body or setting interrupts the line. Some arms rise with clenched or open hands above the head, others bend at the elbow with the forearm turned. The lower left study carries a brown wash that gives its limb more weight than the pen lines alone. Shading is built from fine parallel hatching, with denser strokes gathering at the elbows, shoulders and undersides of the forearms.

Meaning & Symbolism

The sheet concentrates on one part of the body and examines it from many angles. Repeating the same limb in raised, flexed and extended positions lets the draughtsman study how muscle and tendon shift as the arm moves, and how the shoulder joint carries that movement. Studies like this were central to academic training in sculpture, where the structure of the limb had to be understood before a gesture could be modelled convincingly in clay or bronze. Solon Borglum, born in 1868 in Ogden, Utah, studied in Paris and worked in New York, becoming known for animal sculpture and Western and frontier subjects. He was the brother of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

Study Made Wearable

Anatomical drawing is meant to be read up close, and this tee carries the sheet across the chest at the scale of a working sketchbook page. The five arms spread across the front of the shirt the way they spread across the paper, each one standing alone in its own position. Wearing it puts a set of 1895 figure studies in the same frame as the body they describe.