Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Boy in Chair - n.d. - T-Shirt

A graphite pencil study of a child's head in profile, drawn on mottled grey-cream paper, with a sketched arm and a second face at lower left.

Visual Elements & Composition

The sheet is built around a young head facing right, its short cropped hair, rounded ear and carefully drawn nose and mouth set against loose, open paper. Shading stays mostly within the head, so the eye lands there first. An arm reaches from the shoulder across the sheet, ending in a quickly sketched hand, while long pale strokes suggest the sleeve and body below. At lower left, a second face with closed eyes and a relaxed mouth repeats the subject in a different mood, and faint marks near the upper left hint at further partial forms. Nothing is finished. The page reads as a working sheet, with the grey-cream ground and graphite lines doing all the work.

Meaning & Symbolism

Solon Borglum (1868-1922) was born in Ogden, Utah, and became known as a sculptor of animals and frontier subjects, working largely in bronze after training in Paris. He was the brother of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Drawings like this one were made from life and served as preparation for sculpture. The repeated attention to the head and the angle at which it sits on the shoulders show a sculptor studying how a child's features are constructed in three dimensions. The closed-eyed face shows him returning to the same subject to test another expression, which is the kind of rehearsal that came before modelling.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A study this quiet suits a garment you wear close to the body. The head sits at the chest, so the profile faces outward as you move, and the sketched arm follows your own shoulder line. Its loose, unfinished strokes work well on a plain tee, where the paper-like ground lets the drawing stand on its own without competing with anything else on the shirt.