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"Very Damn Rude." The portrait arrived back at the Hurd ranch—c.o.d. Nevertheless, Mrs. Johnson persuaded Hurd to try a smaller portrait, 30 in. by 36 in., based on the President's favorite photograph. The picture was taking shape when, to Hurd's dismay, he discovered that "that photograph was in every little bureaucrat's office in America—including the post office in San Patricio. I couldn't plainly copy such a picture. I lost interest." However, he finished the large portrait and shipped it off to Washington. Several months later he got a letter from the White House Historical Association informing him that the portrait would not be the President's official one—because, it was finally explained last week, at 40 in. by 48 in., it was too big. A $6,000 check for the painting soon followed. Hurd sent it back.
The President, says Hurd, "was very damn rude. I worked my tail off. He hasn't the least concept of how an artist works." Yet he insists that he really harbors no ill will and still likes L.B.J. "He's a dynamic visionary. I'm surrounded by Johnson haters, but I'm not one of them."
The President, in public at least, maintained a stoic silence. Unlike Winston Churchill, who so hated his 80th birthday portrait by Graham Sutherland that he kept the original hidden until his death, Johnson cannot conceal the "ugliest thing" he ever saw. Hurd is putting the painting on public display this week in the Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts, and—thanks to its recent publicity—it eventually will be seen across the country. Meanwhile, the current wisecrack in Washington is that artists should be seen around the White House—but not Hurd.