George Henry Yewell

George Henry Yewell (20 January 1830 – 26 September 1923) was an American painter and etcher.

Early years Yewell was born in Havre de Grace, Maryland. His father died when he was a boy, and he and his mother left Maryland for Cincinnati, as she had family there; in that city he received some instruction from Theodore S. Parvin, who later became a prominent educator in Iowa. His breakthrough came with a political cartoon he drew about the controversy surrounding the move of the state capital from Iowa City to Des Moines. He later described the incident: At the height of the excitement, I drew a large caricature, representing the Capitol building on wheels, and oxen pulling one way, upon whose shoulders were placed heads of members who voted for removal. On the other end of the building were those members who voted against the bill, represented by oxen whose feeble chain had broken and tumbled them in a heap. Principal leaders of the movement were represented as drivers; bodies of different animals, suited to their different characters, being in place of their own. The likenesses were easily recognized and the caricature created a sensation. It went from town to town over the state and made me widely known.

Among those who took notice of the young artist was Charles Mason, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court. He collected a group of associates and together they financed the young man's move to New York City for the formal study of art. Charles Anderson Dana provided him with a letter of introduction to Thomas Hicks, whose pupil he became, and in whose studio he met William Makepeace Thackeray. With his wife and her brother Oscar he returned to Europe in 1867, and took up residence in Rome; he spent summers in Perugia and Venice and traveled to Egypt in 1875, and returned to the United States in 1878.

Collections of his work Throughout his career Yewell depicted many prominent Iowans, including governors Samuel J. Kirkwood, Ralph P. Lowe, and John Chambers, General Grenville M. Dodge, and justices Charles Mason, George G. Wright, and John Forrest Dillon. the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yewell's papers are currently held by the University of Iowa. Among them are his notebooks, many of which he copied from his earlier journals, which he kept sporadically throughout his career and which provide valuable insight not only into his creative life but into the everyday affairs of the period. The archive also contains a collection of his etchings and drawings; sketchbooks; prints made from his paintings; photographs; and much correspondence from throughout his career.