16 Facts About Peter Hurd

Peter Hurd was an American painter whose work is strongly associated with the people and landscapes of San Patricio, New Mexico, where he lived from the 1930s.

Peter Hurd is equally acclaimed for his portraits and his western landscapes.

Early in his life, Hurd studied in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania under the noted illustrator N C Wyeth, along with two of his grown children.

Peter Hurd moved to Philadelphia, where he graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, which he entered in 1924.

Peter Hurd worked alongside Wyeth's own children, Andrew and Henriette, who were studying under their father.

Peter Hurd worked as Wyeth's assistant at his studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, for a number of years.

Peter Hurd worked at capturing the landscape and the people who lived within it.

Peter Hurd covered almost all the fronts of the far-flung battle line, creating hundreds of "War Sketches" that range from poignant to comic.

Peter Hurd had always been a careful and precise worker when he worked in tempera.

Peter Hurd loved to paint people who were deeply connected to the land, and always showed them outdoors, against the hills and sky.

From 1953 to 1954, Peter Hurd was commissioned for a major mural by Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.

Peter Hurd completed about one fresco per week over a two-year period, depicting pioneers and influential leaders of West Texas.

Peter Hurd had previously done a portrait of the former for the cover of the January 1,1965 issue of TIME which announced the President-elect as the magazine's Man of the Year.

Peter Hurd had received the commission because Johnson liked his work.

Wyeth, and son Michael Peter Hurd, can be seen at the Peter Hurd-La Rinconada Gallery in San Patricio, New Mexico.

Peter Hurd set many of his works in southeastern New Mexico, on his family's ranch in San Patricio and in the Hondo Valley.