Cornhusker

Copied Christian Petersen, Cornhusker, modeled 1941, cast 2001, bronze, overall: 41 7815 1425 38 in. (106.538.764.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the University Museums, Iowa State University, in honor of Christian Petersen, 2001.31

Artwork Details

Title
Cornhusker
Caster
Polich Art Works
Date
modeled 1941, cast 2001
Dimensions
overall: 41 7815 1425 38 in. (106.538.764.5 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the University Museums, Iowa State University, in honor of Christian Petersen
Mediums
Mediums Description
bronze
Classifications
Keywords
  • Occupation — farm — harvesting
  • Figure male — full length
  • Object — vegetable — corn
Object Number
2001.31

Artwork Description

In 1940, Christian Petersen attended the Story County, Iowa, cornhusking contest, where he saw Marion Link husk an incredible seventy ears of corn in one minute. Petersen was so impressed with the twenty-four-year-old farmer that he immediately went home and made the first model for his sculpture Cornhusker. Link went on to win the Iowa State championship, cleaning more than three thousand pounds of corn in eighty minutes. He later placed second in the national championship with "probably the largest single crowd . . . ever assembled for any one event in the state of Iowa," reported the Des Moines Register. Petersen depicted the farmer as a heroic, strapping man because, for him, Link represented the health and virility of the nation. Petersen believed that the contests exemplified the courage of midwesterners who dealt with the hardships of farming during the Great Depression.