Eve Of Saint John

4 Pages 922 Words

Extra Credit Gallery Review

I chose a piece from the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park

entitled the “Eve of Saint John”, painted by Peter Hurd. Also known as “Noche de San

Juan” due to the strong hispanic influence in the artists’ life. Born in Roswell, New

Mexico, Hurd originally was destined to be in the military for one Hurd had fought in

every American war since the French and Indian war in the dawn of our country. Peter

was formally known as Hugh Hurd then changed his name in his teens because his

parents had been calling him Pete since he was a child. Peter dropped out of the West

Point Military Academy due to the rigorous physical and mental stress and devoted his

life to the arts. He moved back to Roswell and spent most of his life there.

The “Eve of Saint John” was painted in 1960 on his ranch in New Mexico. The

little girl in the depiction is the daughter of Hurd’s ranch foreman and is alive today, still

living in Roswell. The child, Doretea Herrera, at the time was twelve years of age and is

on her way to a church function holding a candle in her hands. The artist chose to add a

lot of detail to even the background of the painting, but I will focus right now on the main

image on the board. The girl in the painting has extremely soft skin, which is

accomplished by light brush strokes to the cheeks and arms. Her face has many different

colors of pink, peach and brown, highlighted with bright white from the candle. She

holds the candle in her left hand and shields the flame from view with her right. The

brightness from the candle flame can be seen through the cracks between her fingers and

is achieved by using brightly colored paint in those areas. The flame barely breaks the
plane between the top of her right hand and the background.

The girl has sharp facial features not seen often in Mexican or Hispanic peoples,

but...