Linton Foersterling
1924 - 1980

Born in 1924, Linton Foersterling began studying photography and painting at the St Louis School of Fine Art (Washington University) in the mid-1940’s. The School of Fine Art at this time was strongly influenced by German modernist painters, most notably, Max Beckmann, who taught there from 1947-1949. Bauhaus-trained painter and printmaker, Werner Drewes had also come to St Louis to teach the year before.

Simultaneously, the St Louis department store magnate and well-known art collector, Morton May, began amassing one of the greatest collections of German Expressionism in the United States. He was influential in organizing the first retrospective show of Beckmann’s work at the St Louis Art Museum in 1948. May envisioned a circle of artists working in St Louis in the Expressionist-style. While this never formally occurred, there were a number of students at the School of Fine Arts including Foersterling that were clearly influenced by this style.

Foersterling was a student and personal friend of Beckmann, and perhaps the most obvious example of this influence. His style markedly changed to closely resemble Beckmann’s upon the latter’s arrival in St Louis.

After graduation, Foersterling struggled to make a career as a painter, and on advice from his family, turned to sculpture, which ultimately proved equally disappointing. In the 1950s, he found some amount of financial success as a photographer, and made a modest living doing that for the remainder of his career.