Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Nude, Spring - 1919 - T-Shirt

This is a pencil study of a standing female nude, one hand raised to the chest and the other lowered, holding a small sprig, drawn in 1919 and titled Spring.

Visual Elements & Composition

Cream paper dominates the sheet, with warm graphite lines doing all the work. The figure is seen nearly frontally, her head inclined toward the left shoulder, and her form is built up in soft hatched tones that gather most heavily along the hip, the thigh and the far side of the torso. Lighter pencil traces a smaller secondary form and a heavy ground line at lower left, while faint ochre foxing marks the edges of the paper. Handwritten pencil notes sit in the upper right corner.

Meaning & Symbolism

The title places the figure within the season of renewal, and the sprig in her lowered hand and her downward gaze carry that idea into a quiet moment of tenderness rather than action. Allegorical figures of spring, often shown as young women with flowers or greenery, were a long-standing subject in European art, and this study draws on that convention while keeping attention on the body and its poise. Solon Hannibal Borglum (1868–1922) trained in Paris and was known chiefly for animal and western sculpture; studies like this one show his interest in the nude as a vehicle for ideas of season and feeling.

Made for the Everyday Wearer

A drawing this intimate asks for a close look, and a tee suits it: the figure sits centred on the chest, where the wearer's own pose echoes the hand raised to the breast. The soft modelling of the pencil reads well across a shirt, and the sprig and the faint secondary form give the eye small places to rest as you move through the day.