Library Boy and Girl: Models

Object NameModel

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

Date1944

MediumPainted plaster

Dimensions24 x 12 x 12 in. (61 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm)

ClassificationsArt on Campus Preparatory Studies and Maquettes

Credit LineGift of Wayne Moore and Family. 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 numberUM2007.18ab

Status

On view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextPetersen's Library Boy and Girl show that he could apply the same inclusive approach to sculpture for an interior as for the out of doors. In the final sculpture, the two students sit modestly on either side of the entrance to a stairway, so that viewers must pass between them whether going into or out of the room. Although at first they seem unassuming and absorbed in their reading, with a little scrutiny, it soon becomes clear that they are actually absorbed in something else -- each other. Although their books are open on their laps and their heads are down, they are also angled slightly so that we sense their sharp awareness of one another. The sweetness and the tempered longing of the couple may have seemed especially point in 1944, when so many were separated from loved ones and the simple pleasure of a college romance seemed very remote in the midst of war.

Locations