| Peter Forster | |
| Birth Place: | Fulham, London |
| Birth Date: | 1934 |
| Death Date: | 2021 |
| Nationality: | English |
| Field: | Wood engraver |
Peter Forster (1934 – 2021) was an English wood engraver, artist and printmaker, making illustrations for The Folio Society, The Times, The Observer and Saatchi & Saatchi, together with a number of other publications.[1] [2] He was one of the first wood engravers to use colour in his printmaking.[3] [4] In 2005 he was asked by The Royal Mint to design the £2 coin to recognise the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.[5]
Forster was born in Fulham in 1934, the son of Harold Forster, who served in the Royal Air Force, and Mabel (née Fairy).[1] [2] He was educated at Bedford Modern School, the Luton School of Art and at the Ruskin School of Art.[1] [2] For his National Service, he followed his father into the Royal Air Force.[1] [2]
Following National Service, he taught at Bedford School for one year, but left as teaching was not a profession for him.[1] [2] Forster then pursued a career as a book illustrator on a freelance basis before taking up employment in the graphic design studio at the Department of the Environment in 1964 with the task of designing guide books.[1] He considered that 'he'd sold his soul' and left in 1985 to continue work as a wood engraver in a private capacity.[6] In particular he aligned his love of literature and art working with the Folio Society.[1] He illustrated seven complete Folio Society volumes including works by Chaucer, Shakespeare,[7] Jane Austen and George Eliot, among others.[4]
Forster was a friend of Merlin Holland, the grandson of Oscar Wilde.[1] His interest in Wilde led him to illustrate Wilde's De Profundis,[8] on behalf of the Folio Society, and he also made illustrations for The Ballad of Reading Gaol, again for the Folio Society.[4] He also made a series of colour prints entitled A New Temple of British Worthies including prints of Florence Nightingale, Charles I, and Jane Austen and later a collection of engravings presenting the royal family as mythical creatures.[1] [9]
In 2005 he was asked by The Royal Mint to design the £2 coin to recognise the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.[5]
In 2006, Forster entered into a civil partnership with Hugh White.[1] [2] Forster stated that: “I do not believe in the life to come but opening the south door of a village church and stepping down into the cool, whitewashed interior is one of the sweetest things in life, a sensation unchanged since schooldays; the experience of life that was.”[10]