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Mother with Walking Child (unfinished)

Artist / Maker Christian Petersen (Danish - American, 1885 - 1961)

Date1938

OriginUSA

MediumLimestone, charcoal

Dimensions26 1/2 x 6 in. (67.3 x 15.2 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of James Borcherding. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberU92.401

Status

Not on view

Collections

Label TextThe subject of these sculptures is surely the artist's wife, Charlotte, and their daughter, Mary, who would have been a toddler in 1938. Yet, its insightful observation of the earthy events of everyday life is also reminiscent of the Kentucky sculptures and drawings. Such works of art as these would seldom have been made on commission or with little hope of salfe, but to express the artist's ideas or feelings about his own experiences. Obviously, he was able to capture the momentous in the everyday, the enduring joys of life in a fragment of time. These two sculptures also show Petersen working in two different media, perhaps to determine which material, clay or limestone, would be better suited to the subject matter and his interpretation. It is possible as well that the clay figures were studies or models for a more finished sculpture in stone. The limestone is unfinished-for what reason we do not know- but it is interesting because it shows how the artist worked and how he went about developing his sculpture. The charcoal marks that can still be seen show how important drawing was Petersen. It was not just a preliminary exercise in two dimension but was actually transferred to the stone to faceilitate the thought process and as an aid in carving.