VICTOR CLYDE FORSYTHE (1885-1962)

Clyde Forsythe was born in Orange, California on August 24, 1885. He spent his youth on a ranch in the Coachella Valley. Forsythe was a pupil of Louise Garden MacLeod at the Los Angeles School of Art & Design, and in 1904 painted his first western landscape while on a train from California to New York. Clyde further studied with Frank V. DuMond at the Art Students League while working as a staff artist for the New York World. While in New York, he became nationally famous as the creator of cartoons and comic strips such as Way Out West and Vic. During World War One he painted many war posters including the And They Thought We Couldn't Fight. Forsythe introduced an unknown artist named Norman Rockwell to Saturday Evening Post and was a close friend of Frank Tenney Johnson. Having gained financial success, in 1920 he and Johnson moved to Alhambra, California where they shared a studio. With their paintings in demand, they established the Biltmore Art Gallery in Los Angeles. After returning to California, Forsythe immersed himself in the lore of the West and often lived in ghost towns while on painting forays. His subjects included desert scenes with prospectors and their burros as well as cowboy genre. His unique style of painting the sky and cloud formations became the identifying feature of his landscapes. Forsythe died in Pasadena on May 24, 1962.

Clyde Forsythe biography courtesy of EDAN HUGHES.