Pablo Picasso Elephant Sketch T-Shirt

An elephant in a handful of strokes, from a man who could draw an animal correctly at nine and spent the following seventy years learning to draw it in as few lines as possible.

That was the actual project. He said it took him four years to paint like Raphael and a lifetime to draw like a child, and the animal sketches are where you can see the arithmetic — every stroke removed is one the eye has to supply, and the drawing gets stronger each time. An elephant is a good test, because it is mostly volume and a nose, and both have to be implied.

Daddy has a rule that the best drawings look easy and are not. This is his example.

The shirt itself is the good kind of basic: combed ring-spun cotton, preshrunk, side-seamed so it hangs straight, taped shoulders so the collar doesn’t twist after the fortieth wash. It fits like the tee you’ve had for ten years, on day one.

How to wear it

White tee, jeans, sneakers, an open oxford if the weather asks. Simple shirt, simple outfit.