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

A pale pencil study of the human torso in skeletal form, with the rib cage, spine and pelvis drawn in plain, measured lines beside a small sketch of a hand.

Visual Elements & Composition

The design sits on off-white paper, with pale graphite lines that stay quiet against it. The rib cage dominates the centre of the sheet as an oval, its ribs curving down from a central spine. Below it, the vertebral column runs to a broad, open pelvis. Faint horizontal guide lines cross the rib cage and mark its proportions. A few contour lines form the hand at the left, and a lilac grey border frames the whole composition. The arrangement is vertical, with the skeleton stacked from chest to hip.

Meaning & Symbolism

Studies like this were part of the training for artists who worked from the figure. Knowing the skeleton let a draughtsman place the body's weight, proportions and movement before adding muscle and surface. The rib cage and pelvis, linked by the spine, form the framework on which any figure is built. This sheet is dated 1916 and comes from the catalogue of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. It was drawn by Solon Hannibal Borglum (1868 to 1922), an American sculptor born in Ogden, Utah, who trained in Paris under the animalier Emmanuel Frémiet. His animal sculpture, especially horses, depended on the same close knowledge of underlying structure seen here in human form.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A tee carries this drawing across the chest, where the eye reads the spine and rib cage as a single centred figure. The skeleton's vertical line runs with the shirt's own centre seam and collar, so the study sits in the same place a sketchbook page would sit when held up for a closer look.