Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - The Plunge #8 - n.d. - T-Shirt

A single nude figure tips steeply down a cream sheet, one arm flung wide and one leg reaching for the lower edge, caught in the instant before the fall completes.

Visual Elements & Composition

The drawing is built from fine, unhatched graphite outlines on cream paper, with the cream ground dominating the image. The figure sits near the centre of the sheet on a steep diagonal, running from upper right down toward lower left, and generous empty space surrounds it on every side. Faint trailing strokes beneath the feet mark the path of the movement. The outline stays light and unfinished, so the body reads as drawn rather than rendered, and the eye moves along the diagonal from the flung arm to the reaching leg.

Meaning & Symbolism

Solon Borglum (1868–1922) was an American sculptor born in Ogden, Utah, who trained in Paris and is best known for public monuments as well as animal and equestrian sculpture. This numbered figure study shows the sustained attention he gave to the moving human body. Drawings like this one served as a basis for sculptural modelling, where the pose had to hold together in three dimensions. The trailing marks read as the wake of the fall, and the figure is poised between falling and impact, the central theme of the Plunge series.

Where the Drawing Meets the Shirt

A figure falling through open space suits a shirt that moves with the body. The composition is large and sweeping, so it lands across the chest as one continuous diagonal, with the flung arm and trailing strokes carrying the motion from shoulder to hem. The cream ground and fine graphite lines give the print the same airy, unhurried quality as the original sheet.