The artwork features four figures: a father, a mother, a boy, and a girl. The original location of the fountain and bronze was the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and 26th Street in Santa Monica, with a street address of 2600 Wilshire Blvd.[2]
The 8 ft (2.4 m) tall[3] sculpture was installed in 1969 at one of Howard Ahmanson Sr.’s richly decorated Home Savings of America branches, along with a mosaic mural called Pleasures Along the Beach by Millard Sheets.[4] The Millard Sheets Studio hired Ellis several times. Ellis created statues for five Home Savings branches, all on family themes.[4][5]
Family was surveyed by the Smithsonian Institution's Save Outdoor Sculpture! program in 1995.[6]
The fountain and mural at the former Santa Monica branch were relocated to the Hilbert Museum of California Art in Orange, California in 2019, along with a third piece from the building, John Edward Svenson's cast bronze Child on a Dolphin.[7][8] Family and Dolphin will be installed in the museum's California native plant garden when it reopens after expansion in 2023; the Sheets mosaic will be installed on the facade of the museum building.[1]
The original building also featured stained glass windows by Susan Hertel; they were removed and put into storage in 2021.[9]
Close-up of mother
Father and son
