Gallery

George McConnell was born in Steubenville, OH in May 1851 and died in Portland, ME in 1929. He is buried in Scarborough Maine.  He studied portraiture in Philadelphia and New York. He also studied landscape painting with George Inness and continued his art training at the Academy Julien in Paris.

In 1874 he painted a scene of the Amoskeag Woolen Mills in Manchester New Hampshire and is known to have painted portraits of Manchester residents in 1872 and 1876. He was listed in the 1875 Manchester city directory as an artist. In 1883, at the age of thirty-one, McConnell settled in Portland, Maine. He did commercial work that he sold at various hotels and resorts. He painted a great variety of subjects, including coast and seascapes around Portland as well as White Mountain Landscapes. His White Mountain paintings date from 1892 to 1922. His portraits hang in six state capitols, including Maine’s.

McConnell was a frequent exhibitor at the Portland Society of Art.

Although a prolific artist, he earned the larger part of his income as a virtuoso banjo player and minstrel man.

Typical of his work is Autumn on the Ammonoosuc River.

McConnell died in 1929 and is burried in Black Point Cemetary in Scarborough, ME.

Signatures

Photo Credit
The Land and Sea of Five Maine Artists

References
The Land and Sea of Five Maine Artists
Who Was Who in American Art