George Hetzel was born in Alsace, France in 1826 and died in Pittsburgh in 1906. The Hetzel family moved to Pittsburgh when he was two. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a house and sign painter, later gaining experience as a muralist for riverboats, cafes and a penitentiary. With the money he earned from interior decorating (murals), Hetzel went to Germany in 1847 to study for two years at the Dusseldorf Academy. On his return in 1850, Hetzel painted very precise, representational portraits with smooth, even strokes, following the current Dusseldorf style.
 
In the late I850’s, Hetzel joined a group of Pittsburgh painters at the mountain retreat called Scalp Level and began to paint very precise landscapes, bucolic scenes of pleasant beauty. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, he continued to rely on realistic detail to convey texture and reflected light. In the1870’s, Hetzel began to use his brush more freely.
 
Hetzel is considered one of Pennsylvania's most significant landscape, portrait and still life painters of the nineteenth century. From his studio in Pittsburgh, he painted highly detailed, realistic views of nature, moving increasingly in the latter part of his career to impressionistic concerns with light. He was also very popular as a portraitist, noted for his sensitivity. All of his work possesses a quality of benevolent quiet and pensiveness. Hetzel exhibited at the National Academy in New York from 1965 to 1882 and at the Pennsylvania Academy until 1891. He was the only Pittsburgh artist represented at the 1876 Centennial exposition held in Philadelphia. Hetzel was also a teacher at the Pittsburgh School of Design for Women.
 
Public Collections:
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Wilstach Collection

Listed:
E. Benezit
American Art Analog, vol.1
Dictionary of American Artists, Sculptors and Engravers, Young
Exhibition of the National Academy 1861-1900, vol.1