R. Brownell McGrew

Ralph Brownell McGrew (6 September 1916 – 17 June 1994) was an artist noted for his landscapes of the Western United States and portraits of Native American individuals. Navajo friends dubbed him "The Man Who Paints the Old."

Early life and education

When he was eight-years-old, his family moved to Southern California, where he took art classes at Alhambra High School under Lester Bonar, a landscape painter in oil and watercolor.

In 1946, he was the first recipient of the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Fund, which let him focus on landscapes. McGrew lived for 17 years in New Mexico and from 1978 until 1986 in Cottonwood, Arizona. For more than 30 years, McGrew traveled the back roads of the Hopi and Navajo reservations, to which he was introduced in the mid-1950s by the Western artist Jimmy Swinnerton. "The effect was somewhat like what must have happened when Degas saw his first ballet dancer," one biographer wrote.

His favorite models were elderly men of character, such as depicted in "Navajo Man with Turquoise Headband". He called them "long hairs" – men who had lived full lives whose faces told the story of sun and perseverance. Unlike many artists of the day, he always paid his models for their time.

Collections Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Gilcrease Museum National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Phoenix Art Museum Collection of Barry Goldwater Collection of Walter Bimson, founder of Valley National Bank of Arizona

Awards and citations 1946, the first recipient of the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Fund 1982 Tucson Festival Artist of the Year Original member of the National Academy of Western Art in Oklahoma 1969-1994 member of Cowboy Artists of America Inc.

Personal life McGrew was born September 6, 1916, in Columbus, Ohio. His marriage to Barbara Ann Froning lasted from 1938 until his death from complications of cancer in Tucson.