Christian
Petersen
1885-1961
Christian Petersen was 49 when he began his academic career at Iowa State College where
sculpture was part of the home economics program for farm girls. Prior to that, he had studied in various New York
art schools and been one of Kitson's studio assistants. He struggled with a career in public sculpture, often supporting
himself as a die cutter - but it was a career that could not survive the depression. Not yet as acclaimed as his WPA
associate, Grant Wood, perhaps the future will eventually respect his application of ancient heroic styles to
Midwestern rural life as family- farm-culture passes into history.
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