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The Rainy Season

Peter Hurd

American Art

Born in remote Roswell, New Mexico, Peter Hurd established his home at Sentinel Ranch, in nearby San Patricio, by 1940 and devoted himself to painting the area’s distinctive landscape. Hurd had been experimenting with the medium seen here—egg tempera (an egg-based, water-soluble paint mixture) applied to gesso-coated panels—since the early 1930s. Derived from Italian Renaissance practice, the method allowed him to achieve a brilliancy of color and “flatness” that he believed were otherwise attainable only with watercolors.
MEDIUM Egg tempera on masonite
DATES 1940
DIMENSIONS 34 1/2 x 47 1/4 in. (87.6 x 120 cm)
SIGNATURE Signed lower right: "Peter Hurd"
INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed verso top: "The Rainy Season / Painted in Egg Tempera / by Peter Hurd / AUGUST 1940 / AT Sentinel Ranch, San Patricio / N. Mex."
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 45.135
CREDIT LINE Gift of Roy R. Neuberger
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
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