Peter Hurd

born Roswell, New Mexico, 1904; died Roswell, New Mexico, 1984

BiographyPeter Hurd was born and grew up in Roswell, New Mexico. He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, but resigned his commission in 1923 and briefly attended Haverford College before traveling to Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, hoping to study under N.C. Wyeth. Hurd studied with the famed illustrator for the next several years, marrying his eldest daughter, Henriette, in 1929 and moving back to New Mexico with her in 1931. After settling on a ranch near San Patricio, just outside Roswell, Hurd began painting colorful landscapes of the area surrounding his home, most often using watercolor and egg tempera. He also began taking commissions for murals and commercial work that included a series of illustrations of Air Force pilots for Life magazine in 1943. Hurd was famously commissioned to paint Lyndon Johnson’s official portrait in 1967, only to have it rejected by the President as “the ugliest thing” he’d ever seen. Nonetheless, Hurd lived out the rest of his life in New Mexico producing work with the region’s land and people at its core.

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