Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Cloisters - n.d. - T-Shirt

A graphite pencil study of a cloister walk, where repeated columns and arches frame a view across a quiet courtyard.

Visual Elements & Composition

The drawing is built in soft graphite on pale cream paper, with grey hatching doing most of the work. A low wall fills the lower foreground, and a stone column rises at the centre right beneath a ribbed vault. Behind it, a dark arched opening pulls the eye under the walk, while a row of narrower arches and slender shafts fades into shadow on the right. Across the open court to the left, a building with a pointed arched gateway, a line of small arched windows and a steep roof topped by a small cross stands in faint outline. The composition is calm and open, and nothing in it is shouted.

Meaning & Symbolism

A cloister was the enclosed walkway around a monastic courtyard, lined with arcades that offered shelter for walking, reading and reflection. Its rhythm of columns and arches structured daily movement and linked the living quarters with the church. The view through the arcade toward a distant building marks the line between the enclosed precinct and the world beyond it, a boundary that runs through monastic architecture. The drawing values that order of repeated forms and quiet passage over any single figure or event. It was made by Solon Hannibal Borglum (1868–1922), an American sculptor born in Ogden, Utah, and brother of the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. He trained in Paris and is best known for animal and frontier subjects in bronze, so this architectural study shows a side of his practice that is less often seen.

Wearing the Cloister Walk

A pencil sketch of an architectural passage suits a tee, where the design sits flat and reads at a glance. The arcade's repeated columns and arches carry across the chest as a single, measured view, the way the drawing invites a slow look along a walk. Wear it as a quiet piece of monastic architecture, with the boundary between enclosure and open court held in soft graphite.