Forsyth was the first student of the Indiana School of Art in Indianapolis and entered the Munich Academy along with T. C. Steele and J. Ottis Adams in 1882. He later returned to Indiana in 1888 and was instrumental in founding the Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, serving as an instructor there until 1933. He died March 29, 1935, and was buried in Section 39, Lot 298 Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, Indiana. Driving east from the south-west corner of Section 39,a pink granite monument has been erected to honor the memory of Forsyth (several rows back), together with a bronze bas-relief portrait of the artist.