Student Work

“. . . judge for yourself.  Create an American art, here in the Midwest, where America has its roots.  Here shall be the soil, and the seed, and the strength of art.” – Christian Petersen, first faculty lecture, 1934

Christian Petersen, arriving to campus as the first artist-in-residence on an American college or university campus in 1935, began teaching sculpture in 1936 in the Home Economics college within the Applied Arts Department. In the beginning, his courses were only open to women as was traditional for Home Economics, but by 1939, both men and women could enroll in his classes creating a rare social meeting place for students that was not divided by the sexes outside of the Memorial Union and the university library. At one point, over 80 couples have been counted as meeting in and later marrying, based on attending Christian Petersen’s sculpture classes.

Petersen continued teaching until his retirement in 1955. Examples of student work are presented here, including notable alumni Elizabeth Anderson (the late benefactor of the Anderson Sculpture Garden), and Norma “Duffy” Lyons, the “Butter Cow Lady”.

A student of Christian Petersen, the late Elizabeth Brookhart Anderson calls her life a patchwork – a series of events and life choices that wove a pattern. That patchwork began in Washington, D.C., accompanied her as a student at Iowa State College, continued throughout her life, and eventually in 2008 culminated in the dedication of the Elizabeth and Byron Anderson Sculpture Garden adjacent to the Christian Petersen Art Museum in Morrill Hall on campus.

“I loved the arts while I was growing up,” said Elizabeth, a 1952 dietetics graduate. “We would often go on an outing to the National Gallery and to various other art exhibits around town. It was an immersion – one I didn’t realize at the time.”

The immersion into the arts continued at Iowa State through an art appreciation class and eventually to her final quarter on campus. Elizabeth was Christian Petersen’s only student in the sculpture course during that session. “I was finishing up with my electives that summer and I chose that class,” Elizabeth recalled. “It was a hot August in Iowa but cool in the Vet Med Quad where the class was held.”

While Elizabeth was working on her own sculpture, Petersen, Iowa State’s artist sculptor-in-residence, was working on Conversations, a heroic scaled sculpture work of art located in front of the Oak-Elm residence halls. “He was working on his side of the studio. I was on the other,” Elizabeth said. “He would occasionally stop working, come over to where I was working and offer advice, but never criticism. Then we would go about our work.”

“He made a complete and total impression on me that summer.”

Elizabeth never saw the sculptor again, but that impression has stayed with her the rest of her life. It stayed with her as her husband and fellow Iowa State graduate Byron Anderson began their lives together. Byron was an exploration manager and petroleum geophysicist for Mobil Oil and the couple, and their three children moved 27 times, living in eight states and Great Britain. Wherever the family lived, Byron, who died in 2004, was an avid gardener, nurturing trees, vegetables and flowers. Along the way Elizabeth’s, who passed away in 2023, appreciation of art and gardens continued.

“No matter where we lived or where we traveled, we would make a special trip to an art gallery and a garden,” she remembered. “My view of the world is shaped, in part, by art.”

Over the past decade, Elizabeth helped others appreciate not only art in general, but Christian Petersen’s works of art as well. In 2005, she funded in-depth research into Petersen’s early, and nearly forgotten, artistic career. The result was the inaugural exhibition, Christian Petersen: Urban Artist, 1900-1934, at the then new Christian Petersen Art Museum in renovated Morrill Hall.

But she wasn’t done yet. The 2008 dedication of the Elizabeth and Byron Anderson Sculpture Garden adjacent to Morrill Hall celebrates the sculptural and teaching legacy of Christian Petersen by presenting his art, as well as contemporary sculptors of today.

“Byron and I always had a garden and this was a great way that I could combine our two interests – mine in sculpture and his in gardening,” Elizabeth said.  “I was enchanted when I saw the garden,” Elizabeth said. “It’s at the corner of Beardshear Hall and Morrill Hall right where my husband and I would meet in between classes while we were students.”

Lorraine Bruns was a student of Christian Petersen in the 1940s. The man depicted in Lorraine’s bas relief was her first husband, Richard Henry Grosse (1924–1966), whom Lorraine met on campus, and later married in 1947. Bruns was an applied art major in the college of Home Economics, where she created sculpture as a student in Petersen’s classes. Bruns later became an art teacher and designed jewelry. In many of Petersen’s student works, there is a visual correlation between what the students complete and what Petersen was working on in the studio. This bas relief mirrors many of the techniques Petersen was skilled in as a previous medallion artist early in his career–skills which he passed on to his students.

This sculpture in plaster was created under the tutelage of Christian Petersen. Signe Neilsen studied Home Economics at Iowa State, and later in her career became an Associate Dean in the College of Home Economics at the University of Minnesota, as well as Assistant Director of the Agriculture Experiment station. Many of Petersen’s students did not go on to have a career in art, however memories shared from Signe mention the focused attention Petersen gave to everyone in his small classes of students. Petersen was known for his sense of humor, and his “magic thumb,” which was able to guide student’s work towards a finished product.  The late Betsinger was a student of Petersen’s near the end of his career at Iowa State, and much of his and his student’s work at this time shows a softening in style, in comparison to the earlier Army Bas Relief of the 1940s.

The late Norma “Duffy” Lyon was a student of Christian Petersen. Lyon, of the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow fame, was a student at Iowa State in the 1940s studying Animal Husbandry. One winter, her sorority sisters and her created snow sculptures of horses in the front yard, which caught the attention of Christian Petersen.

Petersen encouraged Lyon to take his sculpture classes, which is where she created this object. Lyon later would put her knowledge of animal anatomy to use creating life-size sculptures of dairy cows from butter for the Iowa State Fair, with thousands lined up each year to see them. She also recreated Petersen’s Gentle Doctor sculpture in butter in 2000, continuing a sculptural legacy that started in Petersen’s classroom. A bronze sculpture of a cow and calf can be found outside the Veterinary Medicine’s Field Services Building, south Ames.