The Old Print Shop

Peter Hurd

1904-1984

Peter Hurd was an American painter, muralist, illustrator and writer, born in Roswell, New Mexico. He is best known for his landscapes of the West and portraits of the people who lived there, especially in the area of San Patricio, New Mexico. Hurd was educated at New Mexico Military Institute from 1917-20. He was appointed to West Point Military Academy, but resigned in 1923 to peruse an artistic career. He moved to Pennsylvania, where he took classes at Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art and private lessons from artist N.C. Wyeth in Chadds Ford. His studies with Wyeth would change his life in more than one way, as he fell in love with Wyeth's daughter, Henriette, and married her in 1929.

Hurd and his family moved back out West during the Great Depression, settling in San Patricio, New Mexico. Many of his paintings were reproduced in Life magazine, making him fairly well known. During World War II, his relations with Life meant he was sent abroad as a war correspondent with the US Air Force, tasked with depicting the war effort. Many of his war paintings are in the collection of the Pentagon.

After the war, Hurd traveled in the Middle East and Northern Africa, drawing and painting everywhere he went. He even painted a portrait of the Saudi Arabian King, Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.  Back home, Hurd gained higher amounts of publicity in 1967 when his portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson was famously rejected. The portrait is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.

 

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