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

A pencil study on cream paper that separates a single flowering plant into its parts, so the bud, the open bloom, a face-on flower and the leaf structure can each be read on their own.

Visual Elements & Composition

Parchment-cream ground fills most of the sheet, with graphite lines in pencil grey doing all the work. A broad cluster of tapering leaves rises from a common base on the left. A tall, slender stem stands at the centre and carries a closed bud at its tip. On the right, a second stem bends at the top to hold a flower seen in side profile, and below it a six-petalled bloom faces the viewer with a small central cup. Fine, even strokes run along the stems and leaves to suggest their form, while the open paper around them is left untouched.

Meaning & Symbolism

Drawings like this were a standard exercise for artists learning how natural forms grow, turn and open. The six-petalled bloom with its cup and the upright, bending stems point to a narcissus or daffodil type, a flower often used in decorative and ornamental work of the period. Solon Borglum (1868–1922) is best known as an American sculptor of animals and western subjects, and he trained in Paris in the 1880s. This sheet belongs to the preparatory side of his practice, where close observation of natural shape supported both figurative and ornamental work, and it stands among working studies rather than finished compositions.

Built for the Wearer's Eye

A study this fine rewards a close look, and a tee keeps the drawing at chest height where that look happens naturally. The bud, the side-profile bloom and the face-on flower sit apart on the sheet, so each one reads as its own small subject. Wearing it puts a working artist's careful observation of a single plant in front of you, line by line.