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Peter Hurd, February 22, 1904 - July 9, 1984, was an American artist, born Harold Hurd, Jr., in Roswell, New Mexico. Nicknamed "Pete" by his parents, he later legally changed his name to Peter.
Hurd enrolled at New Mexico Military Institute in 1918 as a high school freshman where he began a lifelong friendship with writer Paul Horgan.
Intending to pursue a military career, in 1921 Hurd entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. After two years, however, he resigned from the Academy to enroll at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.
Hurd soon began studying under the illustrator N.C. Wyeth. He worked as Wyeth's assistant at Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, for a number of years. In 1929, he married Wyeth's daughter, Henriette Wyeth, an artist who later became known for her portraits and still life paintings.
Many of Peter Hurd's works are set in Southeastern New Mexico, in particular San Patricio and the Hondo Valley, where Hurd and his family lived for many years.
Some of Hurd's works include:
The Eve of St. John
The Oasis
The Gate and Beyond
The Red Pickup
From 1953 to 1954, Hurd, assisted by his proteges Manuel Acosta and John Meigs as well as his wife Henriette, painted a fresco mural in the rotunda of what was then the West Texas Museum (now Holden Hall) at Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) in Lubbock, Texas. The mural depicts pioneer leaders of Lubbock and West Texas.
In 1967, he painted what would have been Lyndon B. Johnson's official portrait. President Johnson only allowed Hurd one sitting, during which he fell asleep. Hurd had to use photographs of Johnson to finish the painting. Johnson did not like his portrait, declaring it "the ugliest thing I ever saw." The painting is now part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, in the Smithsonian Institution.
Hurd died in 1984 in Roswell.
External links
Eve of St. John on display at the San Diego Museum of Art (http://www.sdmart.org/image/image.pl?mode=&painting=141663)
Lyndon B. Johnson on display at the National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall2/biglbjs.htm)
Virtual Tour of Peter Hurd mural in rotunda of Holden Hall at Texas Tech University (http://www.techsan.org/ipix_peter.htm)
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