Christian Petersen

Christian Petersen (25 February 1885 – 4 April 1961) was a Danish-born American sculptor and university teacher. He was the first permanent artist in residence at a U.S. college or university, and he is noted for the large body of sculpture associated with a single place, Iowa State College, now Iowa State University. Petersen's sculpture is predominantly Neoclassical and beaux arts in style, and he virulently denounced modernism. He especially admired Augustus Saint-Gaudens' reliefs and war memorials. But he also included some gestures toward modernism in his relief sculptures, perhaps under the influence of Grant Wood. His large-scale sculpture has been the object of numerous restoration projects at Iowa State University, to preserve his public art legacy. Other of his works are collected in the Christian Petersen Museum, in the restored Morrill Building on the campus. Personal life Christian Petersen was born in 25 February 1885 in Dybbol, Denmark. He emigrated to the United States in 1894 with his parents, Peter and Helene Lorensen Petersen. The initially settled near Paxton, Illinois, before moving to Newark, New Jersey. He was married to Emma L. Hoenicke from 1908 to 1928, with whom he had three children, Helene Petersen Male (1909–2000), Lawrence (1912–1981), and Ruth Eleanor Sollenberger (1915–1987). He married Charlotte Garvey (died 1985), a secretary for Dodge and Ascher, in 1931. Their daughter, Mary Charlotte, was born 24 November 1936.