Reprint from:

New Book Uncovers The ‘Wonderful Lies’ About Folk Artist Peter Hunt

By Tim Wood,
Managing Editor

An unexpected benefit to Lynn Van Dine’s book about Cape folk artist Peter Hunt was the sudden outpouring of stories about the painter.

"People just write these charming, charming stories," she said. "Everybody just has very affectionate and funny memories about Peter."

The stories came through the Web site Van Dine established dedicated to Hunt, the eccentric artist whose peasant-style designs were the subject of popular how-to books and decorated furniture and other objects sold nationally in the 1940s and ‘50s. The site, www.peasantvillage.com, is not only a tribute to Hunt and his enduring designs, but an introduction to Van Dine’s newly published book about the artist, "The Search for Peter Hunt" (The Local History Company, $34.95), which she will sign at Yellow Umbrella Books on Saturday.

The book is a fictionalized biography of Hunt, who died in a small cottage he lived in behind Peacock Alley in Orleans in 1967. It took Van Dine, whose family has a home in Chatham, years to research Hunt’s story, partly because of the trail of disinformation and flat out lies that the artist left behind.

For instance, Hunt liked to tell people that he arrived in Provincetown when a yacht he shared with Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald docked at the Cape’s tip during a storm. As he told it, he strolled down Commercial Street in a black cape and hat, accompanied by two Afghan hounds and a red-headed dwarf, and proclaimed, "This is a wonderful place. I must stay here."

"He was a terrible and wonderful liar," said Van Dine.

Actually, Hunt was a failed Greenwich Village artist born Frederick Schnitzer who grew up in a New Jersey tenement. He served in World War I and mixed with more famous faces in the New York art scene in the 1920s before relocating to Provincetown, where he opened an antique shop. When he decided to remain on the Cape one winter, to pass the time he began decorating old furniture he found in thrift stories with the peasant-style designs he’d seen in Europe during the war. The brightly colored iconic decorations were a hit, and Hunt soon launched a line of pieces with similar designs, a melding of Pennsylvania Dutch and middle-European motifs, from an enclave off Commercial Street known as Peasant Village. Soon there were spreads in Life magazine, displays at Macy’s and two step-by-step books on furniture decorating. He capitalized on the World War II shortages by urging people to redecorate old furniture and became the darling of the Cape social scene, sometimes spending weeks living in stately mansions, including one on Chatham’s Shore Road, custom painting furniture, doors, and whatever else seemed appropriate.

Van Dine, a writer who lives in Michigan, first became interested after seeing several Peter Hunt pieces in her mother-in-law’s Chatham home and learning that Hunt had stayed at the property’s cottage while doing the work. She tried to duplicate the designs but found them more difficult than she thought. She began poking around into Hunt’s background, interviewing local artists who served as apprentices in Peasant Village. She soon uncovered the real story underneath Hunt’s carefully created facade, and, with help of a treasure trove of documents she discovered at the Smithsonian Institution, pieced together his background. She discovered it was just as colorful without Hunt’s embellishing.

Van Dine decided to approach the story as part mystery, part biography, using her quest for the truth and Hunt’s obstructionist ghost as vehicles to propel the book along. The book also includes a section of color photos and hints on how to recreate Peter Hunt designs.

Since the book’s debut last month, Van Dine’s Web site has been flooded with stories about Hunt from readers. What struck her most about them is that all are either funny or complimentary. "In all the time I’ve worked on this story, I don’t think anybody has had a nasty thing to say about him," she said.

Van Dine is now researching a book on Cape Cod folk painters and finds the information people have supplied to her Web site helpful. But like the persnickety ghost that haunts her in the book, Peter Hunt seems to always be peering over her shoulder.

"I don’t think Peter’s ever going to be quite completely gone," she said. "And I wouldn’t want him to be."

Lynn Van Dine will sign copies of "The Search For Peter Hunt" at the Yellow Umbrella Bookstore in Chatham from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30.

11/28/02