George Hetzel

George Hetzel is best known for founding the Scalp Level School of painters. He was born in France in 1826, and moved to Pittsburgh as young child. In 1839 Hetzel began his artistic career as an apprentice with a Pittsburgh house and sign painting business. He attended the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany in 1847 to study portrait and still-life painting. Upon his return to Pittsburgh two years later, Hetzel worked painting decorative scenes in steamboat cabins. Over the next several years, he entered paintings in several prominent exhibitions including the National Academy of Design, New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and the Pittsburgh Art Association exhibitions. In 1866, Hetzel was invited on a trout fishing expedition outside Johnstown, an area known as Scalp Level. The beauty of the area inspired him to invite other regional artists to the area the following year. He became the leading figure in a loose-knit school of artists who painted at Scalp Level throughout the 19th century.