Solon H. Borglum, born Ogden, UT - Three Arm Studies - 1895 - T-Shirt

Three arms and hands sit across a pale cream sheet in this 1895 pen-and-ink study by sculptor Solon Borglum, each limb built up from dense parallel hatching.

Visual Elements & Composition

The drawing is laid out on a horizontal sheet in warm white, with ink black doing nearly all the work. The largest arm crosses the right half of the page, its clenched fist pointing toward the right edge. A second arm enters diagonally from the left, its hand loosely turned, while a third rises from the lower left with its fingers curled into the palm. Heavy hatching models the muscle and shadow along each limb, and lighter, open contours define the upper edges, so the forms read as solid mass rather than outline. There is no text or numerals; the composition is driven entirely by the arms and the diagonal they create together.

Meaning & Symbolism

Studies like this isolate one part of the body so its structure and movement can be examined closely. Placed side by side, the three arms show the same anatomy in extended, tensed and relaxed attitudes. The sheet works as a record of the sculptor's attention to form, where arm and hand are studied as masses of muscle and tendon before being placed within a larger figure. Solon Borglum (1868-1922) was an American sculptor born in Ogden, Utah, who trained in Paris and became known for public monuments and for animal and equestrian sculpture. Drawings made in the mid-1890s belong to the training period that underpinned his later figure and monumental work.

On the T-Shirt

A study of three arms suits a shirt well, because the drawing is built from a few repeated gestures that read clearly at chest scale. The arms cross the body the way they cross the page, so the diagonal runs with the wearer's movement rather than against it. Wear it as a quiet piece of academic drawing, where the hatching and open contours show up most when you are close enough to see the hand.