Brinton's Mill

An illustrator, muralist, lithographer, and landscape artist, Peter Hurd is often described as a regionalist painter of the American Southwest. A native of New Mexico, Hurd attended the United Stated Military Academy at West Point but left after two years to pursue his interest in painting. He studied at Haverford College and The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1924 to 1929, he studied illustration with N.C. Wyeth. Although he worked in oils under Wyeth, he began to work with tempera, a medium which he later introduced to both N.C. and Andrew Wyeth. Hurd lived for a time in Chadds Ford after marrying Henriette Wyeth, but the two moved to New Mexico in the 1930s.

Hurd’s primary interest was landscape painting; his inspiration here is the mill at Brinton Bridge, a grist mill in Chester County. The painting was inscribed by Hurd as a gift to Andrew and Betsy Wyeth, who would eventually purchase the property in 1958. This version of Brinton’s Mill is a wide view of the landscape, showing the beauty of Chadds Ford greenery and the river. The mill seems to be of less importance compared to the overall landscape, which is dominated by dramatic clouds and the skeletal forms of ancient trees leaning toward the river.