Born in Auburn, NE in 1905. Raised in an orphanage, Forbes left there in 1920 and came to California. In Los Angeles he worked at odd jobs and as a movie extra. He held his first exhibition at the Los Angeles Public Library in 1927. The following year he was a member of the teaching faculty at the CSFA and then followed book illustration assignments in NYC. In 1930 he moved to New Orleans where he received his first formal art instructions at the Arts & Crafts Club. This session and a course of study in NYC under Jean CharIot at the Florence Cane School were his only academic training. Back in NYC, he worked for the Federal Art Project during the Depression. During WWII he worked as a riveter in a New Jersey shipyard.
In Collection: Works Progress Administration (WPA) Art (View all 416)
Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915 – 1999)
Raymond Steth (American, 1917 - 1997)
Dayton Brandfield (American, 1911 - 1993)
Bernard P. Schardt (American, 1904-1979)
Fred Becker (American, 1913-2004)
Elizabeth Olds (American, 1896 – 1991)
Saul Kovner (American, 1904-1981)
Walter Ellison (American, 1899–1977)
Charles Henry Alston (American, 1907 – 1977)
Joseph Leboit (American, 1907-2002)
Richard A. Loederer (American, 1894-1981)
Edmund Lewandowski (American, 1914–1998)
Joseph Percy Atkins (American, 1927–1999)
Samuel Joseph Brown, Jr. (American, 1907 - 1994)
Elizabeth R. Dewey (American, 20th Century)