Peter Hunt was born Frederick Lowe Schnitzer in a run-down part of Jersey City, N.J. in 1896, the son of immigrants. Hunt began his artistic career in the Bohemian setting of Greenwich Village in New York City. Eventually he settled on Cape Cod in Provincetown. During his second winter in Provincetown, Hunt passed the time by decorating odd bits of cast-off furniture, experimenting with the designs he saw in Europe. The wealthy tourists who docked their yachts at Provincetown in the spring and summer pounced on the colorful pieces, using them to brighten their summer mansions.
Word spread, and soon Macy's and Gimbel's in New York were advertising their own Peter Hunt collections. To keep up with demand, Hunt hired a number of teenagers as apprentices, teaching them to replicate his painting style. Through an advertising campaign, Hunt encouraged Americans to "make old things new" for the war effort by using his decorative techniques, dubbed Transformagic. With DuPont, he wrote a brochure describing how to replicate his angels, flowers and flourishes. National magazines, including Life, House Beautiful, McCall's and Mademoiselle, seized on the idea and published large photo stories. The campaign was so successful; the Transformagic brochure was soon published as a book, "Peter Hunt's Workbook," in 1945 and, later, "Peter Hunt's How-to-do-it Book," 1952. Hunt's popularity waned, but he influenced thousands to give their hand at painting his charming peasant style designs. Today, his work is commanding top dollar at auctions. We are pleases to have many pieces in the exhibition which have never before been on public display.
Per Lysne is credited with reviving interest in the art of rosemaling in the United States. Lysne was born December 8, 1880, in Laerdal, Norway. His father, Anders Olsen, was an artist whose work was recognized with international awards. Lysne was trained by his father. It is difficult to tell a piece painted by his father from one painted by him.
Lysne immigrated to Wisconsin with his wife in 1907. He worked in the local wagon factory until it closed during the depression. He continued to paint special commissions and eventually began decorate his famous Smorgasbord Plates. These plates were sold through mail order and were phenomenally popular. Lysne used generally light colored backgrounds, which is quite different from the traditional colors used in Norway. He did not use patterns, but painted freehand.
While he did not specifically teach others to paint, he did allow those interested, to watch and learn that way.
Peter Ompir was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1904. His real name was Charles Burns. Peter was trained in fine art. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the National and American Art Academies.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) he began his professional career in the middle of the Depression and quickly found that there was very little money available for people to use in purchasing fine art. "I turned to painting anything I could get my hands on from cigarette boxes to anything old or new. I sold them through an agent," Peter told an interviewer in the 1970s. Soon antique dealers and major department stores were clamoring for the work of this talented painter.
His masterful use of color and his designs, primarily of fruits, birds; rosters and men in colonial garb delighted collectors from the beginning of his career and still attract attention today.
It took Ompir about 2 weeks to complete a piece. It is said that there were 19 steps in the process from start to finish. There are differences of opinion as to which mediums he used. We do know that he mixed most of his own colors and that he achieved his noted mellow, aged look with a special method of antiquing.
Whatever the method, technique or medium, his spectacular style of painting remains an inspiration to decorative painters everywhere.
