Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Horse Anatomy, Human Anatomy - 1916 - T-Shirt

This 1916 pencil study by American sculptor Solon Borglum takes a horse apart and lays it out bone by bone, so the animal can be understood as a structure.

Visual Elements & Composition

Pale yellow paper fills most of the sheet, and the drawing sits in graphite grey line work. A full horse skeleton runs in side profile through the centre, with the skull, neck, spine, ribs and legs drawn in one continuous frame. A detached skull sits at the upper right, and isolated limb bones line the left and right edges, some shown in profile and some from the front. Small handwritten labels sit beside the bones on leader lines, and a catalogue-style number appears in the lower right corner. The layout is methodical, with each study given its own space.

Meaning & Symbolism

Studies like this were working tools for a sculptor. Where bone sits beneath the surface determines how muscle and form settle on the finished figure, so the drawing records the frame that gives an animal its proportion and gait. Borglum, born in Ogden, Utah, in 1868, became known for bronze animal and Western subjects. He worked for many years in Paris and was the younger brother of Gutzon Borglum. The sheet shows the scientific attention to anatomy that underpinned his sculpture.

Built from the Inside Out

The skeleton's long vertical legs and arched neck run through the centre of the composition, and the separate bone studies sit around it like notes in a margin. On a tee, the central figure holds the chest while the surrounding studies read as you move, so the detail rewards a closer look. The drawing is about understanding how a body is built, and that idea sits well on a shirt worn every day.