Three toddlers, approximately life-size, sitting at the edge of a pool. Designed for grounds of College of Home Economics, MacKay Hall. Figures moved indoors inside MacKay Hall after being conserved in 1991. 1994 outdoor reproduction of reinforced concrete by Mayda Jensen,…
In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Date
1942
Material
Terra Cotta
Dimensions
sculpture group: 37 x 117 x 16 1/2 in. (94 x 297.2 x 41.9); with pool: 204 in. (518.2) [diameter]
Description
Three toddlers, approximately life-size, sitting at the edge of a pool. Designed for grounds of College of Home Economics, MacKay Hall. Figures moved indoors inside MacKay Hall after being conserved in 1991. 1994 outdoor reproduction of reinforced concrete by Mayda Jensen, Omaha, permanently installed outside of MacKay Hall.
Markings
Signed: CHRISTIAN PETERSEN
Provenance / Location
Commissioned by Iowa State College. Permanent installation inside MacKay Hall entrance. CPAC/AOC, Gift of the 1941 VEISHEA Central Committee. U88.66
Alternate Title(s)
Wedding Ring; Ring of Life
Notes / Sources
May 1941, the VEISHEA Central Committee gives $500 for the construction of a fountain in front of the Home Economics building, designed by Petersen.
Des Moines Tribune, May 30, 1941; Milepost (Ames, Iowa), June 5th, 1941; "He Has Carved a Heritage", The Iowan, Vol. 2 No. 3, Feb. - March 1954; Ames Daily Tribune, Jan 3, 1967; Omaha World-Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), July 7, 1968; Ames Daily Tribune, Aug. 7, 1975.
"The Marriage Ring" (also called Wedding Ring or Ring of Life) was created by Christian Petersen for the College of Home Economics in 1942. The curriculum was centered on the home and families and Petersen thought children represented the ideal image for the College. This playful scene depicts three life-sized children, sculpted at the edge of a circular pool. A young girl leans over the edge to gently cups a water lily, while two boys are see sitting on the edge of the pool, intently studying a turtle. The children are oblivious to their surroundings and are utterly absorbed in the moment. The circular basin of the pool represents a wedding ring and the valuable gems of the ring are symbolized by the three children, which Petersen considered the jewels of a marriage.
Around the outside of the pool are words from the poem The Hired Man's Faith in Children by James Whitcomb Riley: "I believe all children's good, Ef they're only understood, Even bad ones, 'pears to me, 'S jes' as good as they kin be!" The composition suggests a captured moment of children at play. The use of green plant and grass motifs flank the children and are repeated both inside and outside of the ring, linking both the sculpture and the pool to its surroundings.
The original was conserved and is now located in the south foyer of MacKay Hall. Due to vandalism during the 1970s and 1980s, the original figures were conserved and moved inside MacKay Hall, and in 1991 the sculpture was recast in concrete. The reproduction was placed outside the building on the original fountain ring.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
