Biografie von Peter HURD (1904-1984)

Birth place: Roswell, NM Territory

Death place: Roswell

Addresses: San Patricio, NM in 1976

Profession: Painter, lithographer, illustrator, writer, muralist

Studied: U.S. Military Acad., 1921-23; Haverford College, 1923-24; PAFA, 1924-26, with N.C. Wyeth; Texas Tech. Univ. (D.F.A.); New Mexico State Univ., (L.L.D., 1968).

Exhibited: Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1932-57 (4 times); WMAA, 1937-44; AIC, 1937 (prize); Wilmington Soc. FA, 1930 (prize), 1941 (prize), 1945 (prize); PAFA, 1938-44; Phila. Print Club, 1937 (prize); Isaac Maynard prize, NAD, 1954; Amon Carter Mus. Art, Ft. Worth, TX, 1964 (retrospective); CPLH, 1965 (retrospective).

Member: NA; Phila. Print Club; Wilmington Soc. FA; Chester County AA.; AWCS; Century Assn.; Prairie Printmakers

Work: MMA; BM; Denver Art Mus.; Colorado Springs FA Center; Mus. New Mexico; AIC; W.R. Nelson Gal.; Herron AI; Rochester (NY) Mem. Art Gal.; Nat. Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; Delaware Art Mus., Wilmington; Dallas (Tex.) Art Mus.; Roswell (NM) Mus. Commissions: 16 fresco panels, Mus. of Texas Tech. Univ.; mural panel, Prudential Ins. Co. Bldg., Houston, TX; portrait of Pres. Johnson for White House Hist. Assn. (rejected by the President, now in Nat. Portrait Gallery); murals, USPOs, Big Spring, Dallas, both in Texas, Alamogordo, NM; La Quinta Municipal Art Gal., Albuquerque, NM

Comments: After a failed attempt at a military career, he began his art studies, and in 1929 married painter Henriette Wyeth, daughter of his teacher N.C. and sister of Andrew. By 1931 Hurd was living on a ranch in New Mexico. He began painting in tempera in 1935 and in the 1960s turned to watercolor. Positions: war correspondent, Life Magazine & USAAF, 1942-1945, artist, Life Magazine, 1946-; mem., Nat. Fine Arts Commission, 1958-63. Publications: illus., The Last of the Mohicans, 1926, Great Stories of the Sea and Ships, 1933; Habit of Empire, 1938; auth., Count-Down at Canaveral," Art in America, 1963; auth., Peter Hurd-the Lithographs, Baker Gallery, 1969 & Sketch Book, Swallow, 1971.

Sources: WW73; WW47; P&H Samuels, 243; Steward, Lone Star Regionalism, 91; Falk, Exh. Record Series.