Charlotte

Object NameDrawing

Artist / Maker Christian Petersen (Danish - American, 1885 - 1961)

Datec. 1940

Originu.s.a.

MediumPaper; black graphite or conte

Dimensions9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings

Credit LinePurchased 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.

Object numberum92.156

Status

Not on view

Collections

Label TextCharlotte His family was important to Christian Petersen and was a common subject in a long series of works, both drawn and sculpted. These were usually light-hearted and endearing, beginning with a sculpture (currently unlocated) from around 1916 of his toddler son, Lawrence, playing soldier. Later on in life, he continued to draw not only the children from his first marriage, but his grandchildren as well. A few years after his divorce in the late 1920s, he married a Chicago woman, Charlotte Garvey, whom he met after he left the east coast and moved to the Midwest. Charlotte was a secretary at Dodge and Ascher, the firm where Petersen briefly worked as a die-cutter in the early days of the Depression. Life was not easy for the couple as they struggled to live on an artist’s income. After his employment by Iowa State in 1934, cash flow was more regular through still meager. Still, the Petersen’s were know on campus as a devoted and fun-loving couple who contributed to the cultural and social life of the community. They were delighted by the birth of their child, Mary Charlotte, in 1936. Throughout her childhood, Mary starred in sculptures, drawings, Christmas cards, and booklets and was probably the model for the little girl in Petersen’s major religious monument in Ames, Madonna of the Schools. Her childhood and the maturing of their family were traced especially well in drawings, often of an impromptu nature. The artist’s drawings of his wife caught her in unguarded, ordinary moments such as sitting at a picnic or reading (Charlotte was a reader on WOI’s “Book Club”). They were often of a teasing though always good-humored nature that revealed the joy both took in their happy, down-to-earth and deeply loving marriage. The artist’s pleasure in his daughter, his wife, and their lives together is evident in a number of drawings and sculptures, all of which capture the beauty, good spirit and warmth of his family.

Locations