Peter
Lanz Hohnstedt was born in Ohio and raised in Cincinnati. He had
some instruction with Frank Duveneck and Victor Casnelli As a
young man he earned a living pearling the rivers of Arkansas and
doing odd jobs. He migrated to New Orleans and c. 1916 he gained
recognition while painting and exhibiting in the Delgado Museum.
A patron then provided him the use of his yacht which he used to
travel and paint swamp areas bayous in South Louisiana. His
painting Tickfaw River was later exhibited with the New Orleans
Art Association. He kept a studio in the French Quarter and had
a solo exhibition at the Delgado. In the 1920’s he moved Los
Angeles where he lived four years then moved on to the Seattle
area. He was listed as a Seattle area painter 1924-1926. In 1927
he was back in New Orleans. He came to Texas in 1929 for the
Davis Wild Flower Competition. He was a winner with two oils and
pocketed $2250 in prize money. He found a home in Leon Springs
then a San Antonio hotel and finally settled in Comfort, Texas.
After he situated in a small farmhouse in Comfort he produced
numerous landscapes of the Texas mountains and hill country
which he loved. His canvas, "Springtime", was the purchase prize
in the Dallas Woman’s Forum annual in 1930. In 1933 he was
commissioned by the SW Texas Archaeology Society to paint scenes
of the Big Bend area. In 1939 the Witte Museum purchased eleven
large Big Bend oils painting for their collection. Isolated in
the country, never driving an automobile, he battled cancer the
last years of his life but continued to paint and teach art from
his sick bed.