George John Pinwell (1842 - September 8, 1875), was a British watercolour painter.

He was born at Wycombe, and educated at Heatherley's Academy. He belonged to the little group of water-colour painters which included Frederick Walker and Arthur Boyd Houghton, a group whose style was directly derived from the practice of drawing upon wood for book illustration. Pinwell was one of the most delightful book illustrators of his day, poetic in imagination, with considerable inventive power and an admirable sense of colour. His promising career was cut short by his early death.

He came from a poor background, but in 1862 he entered Heatherley's studio and there obtained his art education. His earliest drawings appeared in Littiput Levée. He did a little work for Fun and executed several designs for the silversmiths, Elkington's. In 1863 his first drawing appeared in Once a Week and from that time his work was in constant demand. There are many of his compositions in Good Words, The Sunday Magazine, The Quiver and London Society, but his most important productions made for the Dalziel brothers were illustrations of Oliver Goldsmith, of Jean Ingelow's poems, Robert Buchanan's Ballads of the Affections, and the Arabian Nights.

Pinwell's coloured pictures are distinguished by a remarkable, jewel-like quality and marked by his strong love of pure, bright colour and opalescent effect. Best-known are two scenes from the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Gilbert à Becket's Troth, Out of Tune or The Old Cross, A Seat in St James's Park, and The Elixir of Life.

In 1874 Pinwell fell seriously ill and went to Africa for the winter. He painted several remarkable pictures at Tangier, but his strength gradually broke down and he returned to die in his wife's arms. Pinwell was an exhibitor at the Dudley gallery, and in 1869 was elected associate of the Royal Water-Colour Society and full member in 1870; to this gallery he contributed fifty-nine works. A posthumous exhibition of his works was held in 1876 in Bond Street.

See Life of George J. Pinwell, by George C Williamson, quarto, 1900.

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.