TitleEvening in the Sierras
Artist
Peter Hurd
(1904 - 1984)
Date1938/1939
MediumTempera on gessoed panel
DimensionsUnframed: 24 1/4 × 42 in.
Framed: 34 5/8 × 52 1/2 × 4 in.
SignedSigned at lower left: "HURD".
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, February 3, 1947
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number615-P
Label TextPeter Hurd intended on a career in the military, enrolling in West Point, but resigning his commission after his second year to study art. He studied at Haverford College, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and apprenticed with illustrator N. C. Wyeth, eventually marrying his daughter Henriette. During World War II he served as a war correspondent for Life magazine in England, South America, North Africa, and India.Hurd primarily painted the landscape of the Southwest. He worked in the Renaissance technique of egg tempera, introducing it to N. C. Wyeth and his son, Hurd's brother-in-law, Andrew Wyeth. "Evening in the Sierras" is likely a scene outside of Hurd's hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, in the southern part of the state. The artist was happy to discover he had been elected full Academician and wrote to Charles Courtney Curran, corresponding secretary, "I am happy about being made a National Academician and that on my return from England . . .I will give the Academy one of my best landscapes in compliance with the constitution."
1953 (card says 1952)