Georg Wilhelm Issel was a German painter, Darmstadt court councilor and art historian.

Georg Wilhelm Issel was born as the son of the Darmstadt master clothmaker Johann Franz Issel and the former servant Maria Friedericka Dorothea Issel (née Bürger). His mother used to work as a servant for the Landgrave of Hesse and later Grand Duke Louis I of Hesse. The family chronicle notes that the biological father of Johannes Issel was not the Grand Duke, but the heir to the throne, Louis I himself. This circumstance would explain the lifelong assignments of the Darmstadt court to Issel.

His mother took over his education, since Johannes Issel, the social father, had already died in 1787. He probably received his school education in Darmstadt. In April 1803, he enrolled at the University of Giessen as a law student. In Höchst and Frankfurt, where he lived from 1804, he taught himself to draw and paint, probably with the help of the Viennese landscape painter Anton Radl.

During this time, he also made some literary attempts, for example, a tragedy about the Countess Platen, the mistress of the Elector Ernst August of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Hanover, which was performed once in Frankfurt, but failed.

From 1810, Issel traveled through the Odenwald and to Heidelberg. At that time, he held the title of chamber secretary. From then on, he received a fixed salary from the Darmstadt court and never had to earn his living by painting. He became acquainted with Friedrich Cropp and Heinrich Voß, son of the poet Johann Heinrich Voß. He also met the then 15-year-old Carl Philipp Fohr and took him with him to Darmstadt, where Fohr lived with him from 1811. In 1814, Issel met Count Platen. In the same year, Issel undertook a trip to Tyrol together with the animal painter Max Josef Wagenbauer. He was also friends with the landscape painter Simon Warnberger and the portraitist Joseph Karl Stieler.

Afterwards, Issel traveled to Paris, and from 1815 he traveled to Switzerland, then to the Black Forest, then to Constance and finally to Lake Lucerne and Lake Zurich. From October 1816, he settled for some time in Constance, where he associated with the local artistic community, including Johann Jakob Biedermann, Robert Eberle, Lorenz Schönberger, Friedrich Mosbrugger, August von Bayer and Ernst Baer.

He was interested in establishing museums for all citizens and in 1817 wrote a memorandum for the Grand Duke: On German folk museums 1817. Some pious words about museums of German antiquities and art.

On March 15, 1818, Issel was appointed court councilor. Further trips followed to Berlin, Dresden and Thuringia, where he met Goethe in July 1818. In 1819, Issel settled in Darmstadt and began buying art objects for the Darmstadt court. He hoped for a position as gallery inspector, but the position was given to the painter Franz Hubert Müller. In 1820, he spent time in Heidelberg, where he tried to purchase works from the late Carl Philipp Fohr; he managed to collect 255 sheets, thus founding the present-day Darmstadt collection of Fohr's work.

In 1820, Issel moved with his wife to Constance, where he hoped to find a position as a curator. However, this wish was opposed by the interests of the cabinet secretary Ernst Christian Friedrich Schleiermacher from Darmstadt, who feared Issel as a competitor, which led to a falling out between the two men.

From 1827 to 1835, Issel was the landowner of the Egg house opposite the island of Mainau. In Constance, Issel was able to gather a circle of artists around him, including Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and, for a short time, Ludwig Uhland. He also worked in the Constance city archive and probably published Georg Vögeli and Christoph Schultheiß's Der Konstanzer Sturm im Jahre 1548 in 1865.

In 1836, Issel moved to Freiburg im Breisgau. From there, he traveled through the Black Forest and created paintings with a focus on the Glottertal. In 1844, he moved to Heidelberg, where he remained until his death. Through Henriette Feuerbach, who often visited him in Heidelberg, Issel also met the painter Anselm Feuerbach, whom he became a mentor to.