Located in San Francisco, CA
Ohio-born painter William J. Forsyth (1854-1935) spent most of his life in Indianapolis and initially trained at the Indiana School of Art. But by 1882 Forsyth wanted to hone his drawing and rendering skills abroad. He enrolled at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany. Fellow Hoosier students in Munich included artists T. C. Steele and J. Ottis Adams, which helped the new arrival’s transition.
Forsyth painted figures like this one while in Munich. One intriguing indication that this piece may have been done during the artist’s Academy period is that a very similar portrait of a remarkably similar sitter was described at auction as "German School, 1891" with the inscription "G. Büttner/Munich '91."
However, while there Forsyth shifted his interest to landscapes under the influence of American artist J. Frank Currier...
Category
1880s Barbizon School Jules Breton Art