William McEwan (active, 1859-1872) is considered a landscape and genre painter from the American school. His birth and death dates are not recorded. However, McEwan exhibited numerous works at the National Academy of Design between 1861 and 1878.

According to Henry T. Tuckermans, Book of the Artists, American Artist Life, pg. 532, he shared a studio, studied and was a friend of George Inness while living in New Jersey at Eagleswood. Nearly two miles back of Perth Amboy, in the State of New Jersey, is a rural hamlet, bearing the pleasant name of Eagleswood. The settlement consists of a large and elegant stone edifice, at present occupied as a military school; the residence of the proprietor of the broad acres composing the hamlet, and the residence of George Inness and William McEwan, artists.

Art Across America, Two Centuries of Regional Painting, vol. 1 (New England, New York, Mid-Atlantic, by Wm. Gertz, pp. 240-41, There is a fine studio building occupied by Wm. Page, Wm. McEwan, and E.W. Hall. A short lived, though fascinating art community called the Raritan Bay Union sprang up in Eagleswood, outside Perth Amboy on the Raritan River. It was one of a number of utopian societies founded at mid-century. Marcus Spring, a leader of the community in the early 1860s, recognized the need to include a cultural component to his self-sustaining colony and, to that end, he invited artists to join him there, providing them with studios in which to work. The figure painter Wm. Page was the first to move to Eagleswood, in 1862, the painters William McEwan and Elisha W. Hall were known to have shared a studio with Page.

In 1869 McEwan exhibited, Isnt it Pretty #51 which belonged to Mr. J. Snedecor and The Loiterer, which was for sale at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. His address was recorded as New York City.

Bibliography:
Art Across America, Two Centuries of Regional Painting, vol. 1 (New England, New York, Mid-Atlantic, by Wm. Gertz, pp. 240-41
Book of the Artists, American Artist Life, pg. 532

Listed:
The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania of the Fine arts, 1807-1870
Exhibition of the National Academy, 1861-1900
The Dictionary of American Artists, Sculptors and Engravers, Young
The Dictionary of American Artists, Sculptors and Engravers, Mantle Fielding (see. Wm. McEwen)

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton