Hurd, Lover of the Southwest

River and Canal, San Patricio

                                           

HURD, LOVER OF THE SOUTHWEST

By Libby Clay

If you want respite from this long cold winter, pause to enjoy the painting by Peter Hurd, recently installed in “The American Scene” section of the American Gallery. River and Canal, San Patricio transports us to New Mexico where the air is dry and heat-hazy. A deep blue lake invites us to have a swim. The luminosity of Hurd’s favorite medium, egg tempera, takes us to his beloved Southwest, where he found inspiration in the drama of light and shadow in the hills and plains.

San Patricio is a small village about fifty miles west of Roswell, where Hurd was born.  Christened “Harold Hurd, Jr.” and nicknamed “Pete,” he later legally changed his name to Peter.  His father, a former New York lawyer, planned a military career for his son.  Peter gave it a try, attending New Mexico Military Institute and later West Point. However, his artistic bent won out over the military and he resigned from West Point after two years.  He then enrolled in Haverford College in Pennsylvania to study liberal arts and devote himself to painting.

In 1923 Hurd became acquainted with Newell Convers (N. C.) Wyeth and began to study with him in Chadds Ford.  He later commented that West Point was tough on its students but N. C. Wyeth was tougher.  For the next ten years he lived and studied in Chadds Ford.  The handsome, lanky, energetic Hurd, in cowboy boots and hat, endeared himself to all the Wyeths, especially to N C.’s eldest daughter, Henriette.  They married in 1929.

               

Hurd yearned to return to New Mexico.  He heard of a small ranch for sale in San Patricio and he and Henriette, herself a fine artist, moved there. She, too, fell in love withthe landscape and they painted together at their Sentinel Ranch.  The 1930’s were a busy artistic time for the Hurds.  Henriette became known for her sensitive portraits, especially of children.       

Peter Hurd worked in a variety of materials including oil, watercolor, charcoal, lithography, fresco and egg tempera. He was an early pioneer in the use of egg tempera in the United States, and works such as MAG’s tempera on board are considered to be his finest. (On the reverse side in Hurd’s hand is “Unvarnished egg tempera.  Please handle with great care.”).  In 1932 he introduced his young brother-in-law, the late Andrew Wyeth, to the medium for which he was so well known. Andrew Wyeth would often use a particular New Mexico dark brown pigment which had to be ground to a powder between two pieces of glass.  Then it would be mixed with egg yolk and applied to a pre-gessoed board.  Wyeth said it took six months to dry.

Hurd’s method was to work on several paintings at the same time…mostly all landscapes of the mountains, plains and skiesof his native New Mexico. He would hop into his camper or mount his horse before sun-up, armed with a sterling silver case full of 15 different paints and his sheaf of brushes, and ride off to make field notes (sketches) in color for future paintings.  His studio had a bullet-riddled door, a relic of the Mexican Revolution.  He described the studio as, “looking like an old-time outhouse hit by a cyclone.”

Hurd first achieved national fame for his work in the late 1930’s for the spare simplicity of his Southwest landscape  paintings.  He won many awards and distinctions. Later he was a War Correspondent for Life Magazine during WWII, stationed with the Eighth Air Force in England.  He also painted a dozen covers for Time Magazine.

In addition he was an amateur archaeologist and was on a  “dig” when he became caught up in the famous UFO incident in Roswell, New Mexico, when a mysterious craft supposedly crashed near the site.  He was a passionate environmentalist and published many articles on soil and land conservation.  He was an outstanding horseman and continued to play polo on his own polo field at his ranch.   He was an amateur meteorologist and maintained a greenhouse where he grew tropical plants, including bananas.  In addition to all these pursuits, he and Henriette raised a family of three children who also achieved distinction in the arts.               

Because for many years Peter Hurd had been one of the most successful and best-known painters in the Southwest, Lady Bird Johnson selected him to paint the official portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson.  Johnson allowed Hurd only one sitting, during which he fell asleep.  Hurd had to use photographs to complete the painting.  When shown the finished portrait, Johnson pronounced it, “the ugliest thing I ever saw.” Hurd’s comment:  “It didn’t hurt me none…made me mad as hell at the time, but it had no effect on my life or on my career as a painter.”  The portrait became the property of the Smithsonian and now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. 

Peter and Henriette Hurd’s son Michael is also an artist and today paints in his father’s studio at the Sentinal Ranch in San Patricio.  The ranch now also includes vacation guest houses, most situated on the old polo field.

When asked about his philosophy of art, Hurd’s simple credo was “to live just as intensely as possible, to keep my perceptions at a peak of sensitivity and try to realize to the fullest every moment of consciousness.”  Peter Hurd died in 1984 in Roswell of complications of pneumonia.