Cornhusker
Artist
Christian Petersen
(American, born Denmark, 1885 - 1961)
Fabricator
Polich Art Works
(American)
Date1941; cast 2003
MediumBronze
DimensionsOverall: 43 × 16 × 24 inches (109.22 × 40.64 × 60.96 cm)
Approximate: 150 lb. (68.04 kg)
Approximate: 150 lb. (68.04 kg)
Credit LineGift of University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Object number2004.23
SignedBronze base, proper right: signed "Christian Petersen"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThis bronze sculpture in-the-round shows an upright farmer in overalls leaning over and holding a corn stalk at his proper left side.Gallery LabelMarion Link, an Iowa farmer who won a county corn husking contest in 1941, served as the model for Christian Petersen’s Cornhusker. Emphasizing Link’s strapping physique, Petersen portrayed him as the personification of rural fortitude. The absence of the traditional, protective husking glove further testifies to the toughness of farmers.
In 1934, Petersen was invited to Iowa by Regionalist painter Grant Wood to participate in the Public Works of Art Program that employed artists during the Depression. Petersen settled in Ames, where he became the nation’s first on-campus sculptor-in-residence at Iowa State University, where he sculpted Cornhusker and other heroic rural subjects bespeaking the Regionalist spirit.
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