Wallace Brown (1842-1940)

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

Date1935

OriginUSA

MediumPainted Plaster

Dimensions11" x 8" x 9" (27.9 x 20.3 x 22.9)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LineGift of Joy Munn. Conservation funded by Ruth and Clayton Swenson. In the Christian Petersen Art Collection, Christian Petersen Art Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM99.300

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureAmerican

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Christian Petersen created two 11 in. bust sketches of an African American man and a woman, Laura and Wallace, whom he met during a family trip to Kentucky in the 1930s. Both were sharecroppers, and one identified as having been a former slave. The serious and somber expressions of Laura and Wallace in these portraits serve as a visual chronicle of American hardship at a time when the country was grappling with the economic devastation of the Great Depression. Through careful craftsmanship, Petersen not only captures their likeness, but also demonstrates his skill of being able to see his subjects both as individuals and as representatives for bigger issues. Although slavery was abolished in 1865, sharecropping prevented most Black Southerners from achieving economic or social mobility for generations. Under the sharecropping system, tenant farmers agreed to work an owner’s land in exchange for living accommodation and a share of the profits from the crop’s harvest. Following the Civil War, sharecropping played a key role in federal efforts to reform agricultural practices and landownership, significantly shaping the cultural and economic landscapes of both rural and urban Kentucky. For several decades, it remained widespread in the American South, until its decline in the 1930s, driven by the Great Depression, the mechanization of farming, and the rise of labor union movements. _____________________________________________________ In July 1935, Petersen and Charlotte made a trip to Augusta, Kentucky, to stay with friends Mr. and Mrs. Russell Riley. While there, Petersen made three studies of heads of locals to add to his “series of types of the American races.” The sculpted heads were of Liza McGee, Wallace Brown (1842-1940) and Loura (Laura) Brooks. (Bracken Chronicle (Augusta, KY), July 25, 1935)

Published ReferencesBracken Chronicle (Augusta, KY), July 25, 1935); Obituary for Wallace Brown, Bracken Chronicle (Augusta, KY), April 11, 1940.

Locations