"Beauty is like a soul that hovers over the surface of form. Its presence is unmistakable in Art or in Life. The measure of its revelation depends on the measure of our own soul-consciousness, the boundaries of our own spirit."

-- Gutzon Borglum

Before he created Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum already had a productive and successful career as an artist.

The Stamford Museum and Nature Center organized a 1999 exhibition titled "Out of Rushmore's Shadow: the Artistic Development of Gutzon Borglum (1867-1941)." Selections from that show illustrate some of the influences Borglum incorporated into his work. Frequently, Borglum favored muscular, dynamic poses for his subjects, and he also liked to make art on a large scale.