William J. Forsyth

Rachel Berenson Perry

Description

An innovative Hoosier Group painter and teacher

Closely associated with artists such as T. C. Steele and J. Ottis Adams, William J. Forsyth studied at the Royal Academy in Munich then returned home to paint what he knew best—the Indiana landscape. It proved a rewarding subject. His paintings were exhibited nationally and received major awards. With full-color reproductions of Forsyth's most important paintings and previously unpublished photographs of the artist and his work, this book showcases Forsyth's fearless experiments with artistic styles and subjects. Drawing on his personal letters and other sources, Rachel Berenson Perry discusses Forsyth and his art and offers fascinating insights into his personality, his relationships with his students, and his lifelong devotion to teaching and educating the public about the importance of art.

Acknowledgments
Foreword: William Forsyth Was My Grandfather/Susan Forsyth Selby Sklar
1. Small in Stature, Large in Spirit, 1854 - 1881
2. Munich Drawing School, December 1881 - Fall 1883
3. Munich Painting School and Private Studio, Fall 1883 - Fall 1888
4. The Beginnings of a Teacher, Fall 1888 - Fall 1897
5. Creating a Market for Landscapes, Fall 1897 - Summer 1904
6. Independent Painting While Teaching, 1905 - 1923
7. The Last Fight, 1923-1935
8. Forsyth's Students
Conclusion
Appendix Forsyth Paintings Exhibited Prior to 1937
Notes
Index

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des arts visuels
• ART
• General
• Architect
• Artist
• List of photographers
• General officer
• Architects
• Artists
• Photographers

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 21 mars 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253011770
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

William J. Forsyth
THE LIFE AND WORK OF AN Indiana Artist
Rachel Berenson Perry
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Bloomington and Indianapolis
Illustration on page ii: Self-portrait by William Forsyth, ca. 1897, oil on board, 12" × 10". Collection of Susan Forsyth Selby Sklar, photograph by Ben Sklar.
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
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© 2014 by Rachel Berenson Perry All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perry, Rachel Berenson.
William J. Forsyth : the life and work of an Indiana artist / Rachel Berenson Perry.
    pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-253-01159-6 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-253-01177-0 (ebook) 1. Forsyth, William, 1854–1935. 2. Painters—United States—Biography. 3. Indiana—Biography. 4. Forsyth, William, 1854–1935—Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
ND 237.F4924P47 2014
759.13—dc23
[B]
2013015260
1  2  3  4  5  19  18  17  16  15  14
DONORS
Heartfelt thanks to the following donors for supporting this project:
Dr. Andrew T. Bridge
Bruce and Julie Buchanan
Gayle Karch Cook
Thomas R. Cornwall
Thomas and Kelley Creveling
Eckert and Ross Fine Art
Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, Inc.
Steve and Elaine Fess
Bob and Ellie Haan
Wade and Ann Harrison II
Eugene and Mary L. Henderson
Brad and Zee Hirst
Mark and Carmen Holeman
Rick and Alice Johnson
David H. and Catherine Martin
Lynne Mcguire and William Miller
Dr. and Mrs. George Rapp
Dr. and Mrs. John Rapp
Spectrum Studio of Photography and Design
Robert and Barbara Stevens
Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Stump
Gregg and Judy Summerville
William and Sharon Theobald
Randall Tucker
Anonymous donor

To Indiana artists who carry on
the struggle to
make it in the Midwest
“How is it [selling artwork] done? Very simply, for they talk loud, they paint to sell, and they have friends to sell their pictures for them. Their object is not so much to paint well and soundly as to paint to please…. It's a deuced sight easier to paint a pleasing thing than it is to paint a great thing. It is a deuced sight easier to paint other people's small ideas than to develop and realize a great one of your own…. As for myself, as long as health and strength last me or dire necessity does not push me to the wall, I shall try to develop the best that is in me, be it great or small.”
WILLIAM FORSYTH TO TOM HIBBEN, SEPTEMBER 20, 1883.
William Forsyth papers, Indiana Historical Society's William Henry Smith Memorial Library.
William Forsyth and Clifton Wheeler in French Lick Springs, September 9, 1934. Indiana Historical Society, M0691.
CONTENTS
Foreword \ Susan Forsyth Selby Sklar
Preface
Acknowledgments

1 Small in Stature, Large in Spirit
1854–1881
2 Munich Drawing School
December 1881–Fall 1883
3 Munich Painting School and Private Studio
Fall 1883–Fall 1888
4 The Beginnings of a Teacher
Fall 1888–Fall 1897

5 Creating a Market for Landscapes
Fall 1897–Summer 1904
6 Independent Painting While Teaching
1905–1923
7 The Last Fight
1923–1935
8 Forsyth's Students
Conclusion
Appendix: Forsyth Paintings Exhibited before 1937
Notes
Bibliography
Index
FOREWORD
Susan Forsyth Selby Sklar
W ILLIAM FORSYTH WAS MY GRANDFATHER. I AM HIS only grandchild. I never knew this man, as he had died twelve years before I was born. And yet, looking back over some sixty-plus years, I realize that he has been an almost constant presence. Of course, his art has always been there, filling the walls of every home I have ever lived in. But it is more than the art. It is the stories about him that were told and the almost reverential tone for him that seemed to imbue those stories, especially when told by any member of the Forsyth family.
Certainly my Grandmother Forsyth's house (I will always think of it as her house, and it truly was her house, as she was the sole owner) was full of the presence of my grandfather. It was basically unchanged during the years between his death in 1935 and her death in 1963, after which it was sold and torn down. His paintings lined the walls of every room, and unframed canvases even hung from the chair rail in the little music room. More of his paintings stood in stacks against the bookshelves in the library. Those shelves were filled with his books of literature, poetry, and history, many in German from his years of living in Munich as a student and working artist. His collection of beautiful vases, many hand-painted, lined the fireplace mantle in the living room and shelves in the dining room windows. Even the dining room table bore the burn marks of his cigarettes and small streaks of varnish from his brushes. Several of his Japanese-inspired painted screens were scattered throughout the house as well. A few of his clothes still hung in one of my grandmother's closets.
Even out in the yard were the rose beds he had tended and the old grape vines that still grew in the arbor. The very trees and flowers that grew in the yard when I played there as a child had been incorporated into so very many of his paintings done right there. As I recall, nearly everything in the house and the yard seemed to have some link to my grandfather.
There was, of course, his studio, a large one-room building that stood next to the house. That studio was kept locked except when my aunt Constance Forsyth was home in the summers and used it for her own studio. That was when I was allowed in.
In addition to the stacks and stacks of paintings that circled the room, it was hung ceiling to floor with my grandfather's paintings. There were easels and painting boards and my grandfather's huge etching press that my aunt Connie used every summer. Packets of his pigments were in the cupboards along the north wall, and on top of those cupboards under the large north windows were sculpted heads by my grandfather, as well as jars full of his paint brushes, pallet knives, and many other tools. There were even a couple of his painted screens used as room dividers in the studio.
After college I lived in Indianapolis briefly and had the privilege of attending the opening of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Seeing the paintings by William Forsyth hanging in that new museum inspired me to learn more about this man who was my grandfather. Under the supervision of my aunt Connie and my mother, Evelyn Forsyth Selby, I began a catalog of my grandfather's work.
I was able to visit and document both public and private collections of his art that were not only informative but fascinating. This was when I began to get to know him, at least as an artist. More than anything I learned that he, like most true artists, was driven to create art. He was fascinated by all art forms and experimented in most of them. Besides painting hundreds of oils, he created even more watercolors and mixed his own pigments to create casein, egg tempera, and gouache. Using these various media he was able to create different effects and qualities in his work.
Additionally, he drew finished pieces in charcoal, pastel, pencil, and sometimes colored pencil. He used canvas, artists’ board or wall board, and paper. He also made etching plates and pulled his own etchings on the printing press that he had shipped out to Indiana from the east coast. He painted more than one hundred pieces of china, tried his hand at sculpture, and carved a number of wooden frames as well as wooden boxes, which he also painted.
Now that I have inherited all that is left of the Forsyth estate, I have had time and inclination to read many of my grandfather's letters and writings, and I have come to know him as a person as well as an artist. I have found him to be passionate, emotional, sentimental, and a consummate worrier. I have found that he was interested in all forms of art and in all forms of civilization. He loved history, language, nature, and, above all, people. While he must have been a tyrant as a teacher from the stories I have heard, I also know that he was ever caring of his students, his friends, and especially his family. For example, he wrote letters to the neighborhood boys of Irvington and former students who were deployed during World War I.
He enjoyed being involved in various civic and social groups, including the Masonic Order, the Irvington Dramatic Club, and the Portfolio Club. He donated his artistic talent to these organizations whenever asked, as well as creating the first cover design pro bono for the Magazine of Indiana History when it was created by his Irvington neighbor George Cottman.
I know that he loved the outdoors and especially the Indiana landscape. While he never officially painted in the Brown County area, his early years of painting after returning from Germany in 1888 ranged over most of central and southern Indiana, especially along the Ohio River. According to my aunt Connie, he loved to paint wherever there was water.
He maintained the habit of taking a late summer or early fall painting trip every year from 1891 to 1905. Except for 1903 when he went to Shakertown, Kentucky, all of these painting trips were to southern Indiana. His middle years from 1906 to 1921 were mostly sp