The most prominent of Petersen’s campus sculpture is Fountain of the Four Seasons, a sculpture-fountain-pool complex in front of the Memorial Union. According to Petersen’s first biographer, Patricia Lounsbury Bliss, he was asked by President Friley to develop a plan that would include a fountain to the pre-existing pool but would discourage vandalism and pranks. For this commission, Petersen remembered his work several years earlier with the Meskwaki Nation of Tama, Iowa and decided on a theme that would focus on Native Americans and the grain most associated with them, with Iowa and with Iowa State: corn. Placed at the four cardinal directions surrounding the pool and fountain are four Indian women, each of whom represents a line from an Osage chant.
Facing the east of the dawn, the first figure plants kernels of corn as she illustrates the starting point in the cycle of life, spring, according to the first line of the chant: “Lo, I come to the tender planting.” The second figure faces south, summer, cradling in her two hands an emerging corn plant: “Lo, a tender shoot breaks forth.” Next, looking toward the west, the woman gathers six mature ears of corn in her arms to illustrate the third line for fall: “Lo, I collect the golden harvest.” Finally, to symbolize the last line and winter, “Lo, there is joy in my house,” she nurses an infant. All of the figures are quiet, stately and self-contained with composed and calm facial expressions. The costume is similar to those Petersen had furnished in the pictures for Cha-Ki-Shi, a 1936 children’s book on the Meskwaki.
The sculptures here are the plaster models for the final figures, which were carved in limestone.
Petersen’s patron, President Emeritus Raymond Hughes, wrote to Petersen about Fountain of the Four Seasons, “I am delighted with the fountain. It is one of the very best things you have done and you have certainly made a great contribution to the beauty of the campus.” Listing the other works Petersen had contributed to the campus in just the seven years he had been sculptor-in-residence, Hughes prophetically added, “We can certainly never repay you for all you have done, but I know that through your works you have influenced many students and will influence thousands more as years pass.”
I must say this is the only fountain on campus that I have not cooled my feet in on a summer day. It is far too public. These sculptures capture some of my earliest memories of campus. I am among the hundreds of thousands of people who have experienced life on the campus. Getting a seat close to the fountain was the best place to watch a VEISHEA parade. Hughes was right, “your works have influenced many students and will influence thousands for as years pass.” Over a quarter million undergraduate baccalaureate students have experienced this fountain since it was dedicated in 1941.
-Jerome Thompson
Fountain of the Four Seasons
by Neal Bowers
Inspired by the Fountain of the Four Seasons by Christian Petersen
No need to throw a coin
because this fountain itself is a wish,
a charm against everything
that can go wrong from seed to harvest,
from hand to soil and back again.
The water climbs, collapses, climbs
and falls upon itself
in that old paradigm of plenty,
while maidens guard the compass points,
invoke the seasons.
Look how they cradle the seeds,
the plant, the full-grown ears,
so mush tender mothering
from corn to small child nursing.
Who could fail with such devotion?
If you walk around their circle
you can see the seasons turn,
feel the weather changing,
know that nothing stays the same,
that this is constancy.
Iowa Study, n.d.
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Paper, graphite and red pencil
Purchased by University Museums from Mary Petersen by the Christian Petersen Memorial Fund. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM92.162a
Corn Studies, n.d.
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Paper, red pencil or conte
Petersen Memorial Fund. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM92.159a
Dancing Woman, 1936-1939
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Painted plaster
Purchased in memory of Ruth Smith. Conservation funded by Stockman Foundation. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM98.2 and UM98.3
Models for the Fountain of the Four Seasons, 1940
Christian Petersen, (Danish-American, 1885-1961)
Painted plaster
Gift of Friends of the University Museums. Partial funding for conservation by Mary Alice and Bill Reinhardt, Jr. In the Art on Campus Preparatory Studies and Maquette Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM89.26abcd
Fountain of the Four Seasons, Summer, 1959
Louise Haug
Photograph
Gift of Louise Haug, in the permanent collection of the Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Ames, Iowa. UM2001.182
Fountain of the Four Seasons, Mother and Child, 1959
Louise Haug
Photograph
Gift of Louise Haug, in the permanent collection of the Brunnier Art Museum, University Museums, Ames, Iowa. UM2001.181
Fountain of the Four Seasons
George Christensen, (American, 1924-2020)
Selenium-toned silver print
Gift of Dr. George C. Christensen and Susan J. Christensen. In the Art on Campus Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. U2017.204
Agronomy Mural
Agronomy Mural, 1951
This often-overlooked Petersen bas-relief mural consists of nine blocks of limestone each 4' x 4' 1/2". Petersen depicts an Iowa farmland theme showing sky, seed, and soil, the fundamental agronomy study area. The scene is of a bright radiating sun over fields of planted crops. Large fluffy white clouds cover the sky. The date, 1951, is on the center block. The mural is over the exterior northwest entrance to the Agronomy Building, facing Farm House Lane.
Agronomy Hall was completed in 1952 after decades of requests for a dedicated building for the science. Although my father was an agronomist, he had an office in Curtiss Hall. Sometimes I would go with him to the Agronomy Building where he collected soil testing materials. Petersen’s Bedford limestone bas relief of the sun and clouds over rolling fields captures the essence of agronomy; sky, soil, rain and seed. The most important agronomy lesson I learned from my father is that “it is soil not dirt.” You grow plants in soil and you wash dirt from your clothes.
-Jerome Thompson
Chisels and Calipers, Christian Petersen’s Tools
Metal and wood
Gift of Francis L. Pisney. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. UM99.303a-d
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