Why is Peter Hurd famous?

Peter Hurd is famous because of his landscape paintings depicting the American West and beyond. The landscape of New Mexico particularly inspired Hurd, and it was where he developed his artistic style. Hurd became celebrated for egg tempera, watercolors and lithographs. It was often from his field sketches that Hurd created his detailed tempera and watercolor pieces. Hurd’s adventurous spirit also took him all over the world, including in the mid-1940s when Hurd left home to serve as an illustrative war correspondent for LIFE magazine. The resulting wartime works varied from field sketches to fully developed egg tempera and watercolor works. Many of these war sketches now hang in the Pentagon. Find a selection of Peter Hurd art on 1stDibs.