Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Nude Studies, Bell - n.d. - T-Shirt

A pencil sheet of many small nude studies, each caught mid-movement in a dive, fall or stretch, scattered across a single page by sculptor Solon Borglum.

Visual Elements & Composition

The sheet is rendered in graphite grey on cream paper, with faint brown foxing at the edges. The figures are small and spread across the page rather than arranged into one scene. Some hang head-down with arms reaching overhead, others stretch almost horizontally, and several are sharply foreshortened so a leg or arm pushes toward the viewer. A figure folded into a crouch sits at lower left, and a body turning in on itself appears at right. Small circled numbers sit beside several figures, and a central vertical crease divides the sheet into two halves.

Meaning & Symbolism

The poses are dynamic and unstable, suggesting bodies in leap, dive, fall or swim rather than figures at rest. Borglum worked through many attitudes on one sheet to understand how a body carries its weight through air and how limbs arrange themselves in space. Because each study is quick and small, the sheet works as a record of trial and observation, testing mass and direction before a single pose was chosen for a larger work. Solon Hannibal Borglum (1868-1922) trained in Paris and became known for sculpture of animals and western subjects. Drawings like this one belong to the preparatory practice behind his sculpture, and they show the same concern with movement and volume that shaped his bronzes.

Built for the Body in Motion

A tee carries this sheet across the chest, so the many figures read as one shifting group rather than a single pose. The crew neckline keeps the composition centred on the shirt, and the scattered studies move with the wearer as they walk, turn and reach. Each figure keeps its own line and gesture, the way Borglum's pencil does on paper.