William Forsyth
1854 - 1935
Places lived
Indiana, California, Ohio
Known for landscape, still life, portrait and mural painting, teaching.
Biography
William Forsyth was born in California, Ohio, in 1854 and moved with his family to Indianapolis in 1860. Forsyth attended Indiana School of Art in 1877 where he began his first training in drawing and painting and modeling of clay. He began sketching outdoors with enthusiasm, studying alone and against the wishes of his parents. He was especially fond of areas around Corydon, the state capital, old Vernon in Jennings County, and around Hanover on the Ohio River, the White Water Valley, the hills of Morgan County and the region around Indianapolis.
Forsyth was awarded numerous distinctions in exhibitions, among them a silver medal for watercolor and a bronze medal for oil at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. He was also awarded a bronze medal at the Argentine Exposition at Buenos Aires in 1910, and a silver medal for watercolor.
He married Alice Atkinson of Atkinson, Indiana, in 1897. She was a pupil in the Indiana Art School when they first met. They had three children; Dorothy, Constance and Evelyn. In February 1934, he suffered a heart attack. Never recovering completely, he would sit outdoors as much as possible, surrounded by his family, friends and flowers, and try to do a little painting each day. On March 29, 1935, he finally succumbed to kidney failure.
Works of Art
1933
Oil on Canvas
