Biography

The two most renowned residents of Portage, Wisconsin have been the naturalist John Muir and the pacifist and feminist writer Zona Gale. While Forrest Flower was born in 1912, long after Muir had left Portage and only two years before his death, his life did overlap with that of Zona Gale. And it was Gale who noticed the talent that Flower exhibited in his high school yearbook and urged him to study art. Flower was able to obtain a scholarship to the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, where he studied under Gerrit Sinclair and Charlotte Partridge, graduating in 1934.

By 1936 Flower was under contract with the Federal Arts Project and had attracted the attention of Holger Cahill, the director of the Project. He completed two post office murals, one in 1938 for Rice Lake, Wisconsin, and another in 1942 for Viroqua, Wisconsin. Flower also painted murals at a CCC camp in Michigan, for the Law School Library at the University of Wisconsin, and for the Beaver Dam High School.

Flower entered and won a number of artistic competitions, and his art was exhibited nationwide. In 1948 Life Magazine published a painting of Flower's that appears to be the same composiiton used in the Viroqua mural, based on the Black Hawk War. But his burgeoning career was cut short by illness and he died of cancer in 1948. At the time of his death he had $17,000 of unfilled commissions for portraits, which had become a specialty of his.

Critical Analysis

There is not a large body of work from which to judge Forrest Flower's output. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has two examples, "Forest Scene" and "Physical Examination." Both feature saturated colors as does his Rice Lake mural and his painting for Life Magazine. The Viroqua mural was either painted with a nearly monochrome palette or has suffered from almost complete fading of its original pigments. "Physical Examination" is an excellent composition, its figures almost bursting out of the painting with energy and vitality. Flower's portraits are more subdued but also colorful. It's hard to know if the subdued style was just what his clients might have preferred in that era, but the portraits do have far less energy than "Physical Examination." Artists who knew Flower expected much of his work, and it's sad that he died before he could fully express his obvious talent.

Murals

• Rice Lake, Wisconsin - Post Office: Rural Delivery
• Viroqua, Wisconsin - Post Office: War Party

References

1. Forrest Flower (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
2. Forrest Flower (Gallery of Wisconsin Art).
3. Forrest Flower (PHS 1930) (Greater Portage Youth Education Foundation). Testimonial from Portage High School.
4. Forrest Wayne Flower (Find a Grave).
5. Promising career cut short for Portage artist (Museum at the Portage).