The sculpture depicts a young child playfully struggling with a goose, a popular subject in antiquity. Dine intensified the goose's struggle with three strokes that seem to emanate from the bird's head, recall
ing the expressive shorthand for exertion often found in comic books and cartoons.
Dine's consideration of the printing process is evident in this sheet. The nearly square drawing was larger than the printing plate. The ruled lines framing the figure mark the limits of the printed image. In the Glyptotek book, the back leg and tail of the goose is cut off.
Boy with a Goose, ca. 250–200 B.C.., Glyptothek, Munich
Jim Dine (b. 1935), Glyptotek Drawing 9, Charcoal, lithographic crayon, and india ink on plastic sheet, Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyprothek München Photograph by : Renate Kühling
Photograph courtesy of The Pace Gallery. © 2011 Jim Dine / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York