James Forbes (portrait painter)

James Forbes (1 October 1797, Peterhead, Scotland - 25 March 1881, Plainwell, Michigan) was a Scottish portrait painter who later moved and worked in the United States.

[1] He produced numerous portraits of famous men in that area of Scotland, including the poet William Thom and the folklorist Peter Buchan.

[1] Either way, he seems to have been induced to relocate to Indiana by his friendship with Col. Henry F. Blount (1829-1917), who owned a plow factory in Evansville and may have been a source for commissions.

This resulted in a commission to paint official portraits of six Indiana Governors; three posthumous (Jonathan Jennings, Ratliff Boon and James Whitcomb), three from life (Baker, Paris Dunning and Oliver Morton).

Later, he bought a farm near Kalamazoo from his brother John, where he lived with his daughter Mary and her husband William until his death in 1881.