Peter Hurd
1904-1984
Born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1904, Peter Hurd was educated at the New Mexico Military Institute, West Point, Haverford College, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. Despite his early inclinations toward the military, Hurd decided to pursue a career as a painter instead. He served a five-year apprenticeship as a student in the studio of N.C. Wyeth, the famed illustrator and patriarch of three generations of Wyeth artists. During this apprenticeship, Hurd met and married his teacher's daughter, Henriette Wyeth.
After their marriage in 1929, Hurd and Wyeth lived and painted in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Hurd truly came into his own as an artist when they moved to the 2,500-acre Sentinel Ranch in San Patricio, New Mexico in 1940. Taking advantage of his beloved Southwestern light, Hurd became best known for his paintings of the Hondo Valley landscape.
In addition to works on canvas and murals in oil and acrylic, Hurd painted primarily in watercolor and egg tempera. His commissioned portrait of President Johnson was rejected by the President who called it, "the ugliest thing I ever saw." (Johnson preferred Norman Rockwell's portrait.) Undaunted by this experience, Peter Hurd continued to paint scenes of New Mexico. Hurd died in 1984. His family still lives at Sentinel Ranch, where his son Michael continues the family tradition of art.
Actively seeking works by Peter Hurd.
