Marriage Ring

Object NameModel

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

Date1942

MediumPainted plaster

Dimensions5 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (14 x 52.1 x 11.4 cm)

ClassificationsArt on Campus Preparatory Studies and Maquettes

Credit LineGift of Eleanor White Kinnick Butler and William Butler, White Bear Lake, Minnesota. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Art on Campus Preparatory Studies and Maquette Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2007.16

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: The Marriage Ring (also known as Wedding Ring or Ring of Life) was created by Christian Petersen in 1942 for the College of Home Economics (now College of Health and Human Sciences). The 1940s curriculum was centered on the home and family and Petersen thought children represented the ideal image for the College. This playful scene depicts three children, sculpted at the edge of a circular pool. A young girl, modelled after his daughter Mary, leans over the edge to gently cup a water lily in her hand. Meanwhile, two boys sit on the edge of the pool, intently studying a turtle. Petersen carefully considered the site placement of the artwork on the grounds of MacKay Hall. This is evident in the green plant and grass motifs that surround the children, appearing both inside and outside the ring, seamlessly connecting the sculpture and pool to their natural surroundings. The final public work of art features a full circular ring symbolizing a pool. For Petersen, the circular basin that makes up the pool represents a wedding ring, and the valuable gems atop the ring are symbolized by the three children, which he considered the jewels of marriage. A detail included in the final sculpture, suggested by Petersen’s wife Charlotte, is an inscription around the pool’s edge featuring lines from James Whitcomb Riley’s poem The Hired Man’s Faith in Children: “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!”

Locations