Serendipity

The first family in American art for many years has been the clan begun by N.C. Wyeth, an accomplished artist best known for illustrations in children’s books.  N.C. Wyeth’s greatest contribution to American art, however, was surely his children whom he mentored and their children still active today.  We had no expectation of encountering the Wyeth circle on our trip to New Mexico, and the encounter came about in an unusual way.

N.C. Wyeth’s famous son, Andrew Wyeth, is one of the best-loved American artists of the twentieth century.  We visited the Farnsworth Museum http://www.farnsworthmuseum.org/wyeth-center in Maine several times while we lived in New England, a wonderful little museum with a renowned collection of works by the Wyeth family.  Though the Wyeths are especially associated with New England and Pennsylvania, where Andrew lived and worked for most of his life, one member of the family went west.  Henrietta Wyeth, sister of Andrew, and also a student of her father, met the dashing West Point graduate Peter Hurd, who came to N.C. Wyeth for art instruction.  Later Henrietta and Peter married, and they returned to Peter’s native New Mexico, where they lived and worked for the rest of their lives.

Years ago my father purchased an original lithograph by Peter Hurd which I have now had since his death.  Though Peter Hurd never achieved the fame of his brother in law Andrew, he remains one of the important western artists still today.  Which brings us to our “discovery” on a trip to the western village of Lincoln, New Mexico, the last stronghold of the notorious Billy the Kid.

While driving from Ruidoso to Lincoln we whizzed by a road marked “Peter Hurd Loop,” made a hasty U turn and drove into a dusty village (no paved roads) called San Patricio, and arrived at the La Rinconda Gallery http://www.wyethartists.com/ .  There we met a chatty curator with a vague personal relationship with Michael Hurd, the son of Peter and Henrietta, and while we roamed the galleries displaying prints and paintings of the Wyeth clan, Michael himself came in and introduced himself.

There had been no mention of La Rinconda in the tourist brochures we consulted, so we chalked this encounter up solely to serendipity.  As was this parish church in San Patricio, a pure and simple example of New Mexico church architecture.