Through his twenty-one years as sculptor-in-residence and art faculty member, Christian Petersen (Danish-American, 1885–1961) literally changed the face of the Iowa State’s campus. This catalogue raisonné publication examines Christian Petersen’s early artistic career as a die-cutter and illustrates his evolution from craft designer based on the East Coast to fine art sculptor and how that development ultimately lead him to the Midwest and Iowa State College. The catalogue presents a significant amount of updated information, artwork discovery and acquisitions, and research on Petersen’s body of work since the original publication of his catalogue in 2000. The illustrations capture the beauty of Petersen’s artistic gift and places the sculptor within the context of twentieth-century American art.
About the Christian Petersen Catalogue Raisonné
This catalogue represents the first online/digital representation of the known body of Christian Petersen’s works of art, over 1,200 objects. It is organized by years as well as by medium and is completely searchable. There are some themed areas of Petersen’s body of work that are able to be explored in the catalogue. An updated chronology of Petersen’s life and past scholarly lectures are all available from this page.
This project is graciously funded by Joanne and Charles Frederiksen, Carole Horowitz and University Museums Membership. Many thanks to the scholars, interns, Museum staff and donors who have helped make this online catalogue and ongoing research into Petersen’s life and career possible.
If you have suggested changes, additions, or questions about this catalogue, please email the editor, Allison Sheridan, at aclone@iastate.edu.
What is a Catalogue Raisonné?
A catalogue raisonné is a comprehensive, annotated listing of all the known works of an artist either in a particular medium or all media. This catalogue of Christian Petersen’s works of art may provide some or all of the following:
- Title and title variations
- Date of the work of art, or date range
- Medium(s)
- Dimensions (when known) in inches (cm) unless otherwise noted
- Provenance (history of ownership)
- Current location/owner at time of publication
- Exhibition history
- Condition of the work of art
- Bibliography/Literature that discusses the work of art
- Papers or collections associated to the work of art
- Full description of the work of art
- Signatures, Inscriptions, and Monograms of the artist
- Reproductions and posthumous castings
- List of works attributed, lost, destroyed, re-attributed and fakes
- Catalog number
- Image or Images
Why a digital catalogue?
University Museums at Iowa State University has chosen to publish this work digitally for a number of reasons:
- The quantity of information about Petersen’s work is now considerable regarding both exhibitions, publications and new discoveries.
- Digital publication allows for efficient, quick and flexible searches for and distribution of information in ways not possible with paper publications.
- Deletions, corrections, additions and modifications can be carried out quickly and without disruption.
- Within the files of each work the door remains open to alternative suggestions and propositions regarding dates, a possibility that gives true meaning to the critical nature of the catalogue.
