Gerrit V. Sinclair

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Gerrit V. Sinclair (May 1, 1890 – December 23, 1955) was an American painter, printmaker, and art teacher based in Milwaukee. He worked mainly in Regionalism and Realism, painting rural Wisconsin scenes and the growth of Milwaukee.

Born in Grand Haven, Michigan, he was the son of Peter Sinclair, a Scottish shipwright, and Ryntje Van Westrienen, of Dutch descent. The family moved to Chicago in 1896. Sinclair studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 to 1915. He served in World War I with the US Army Ambulance Service in Italy.

In 1920, he became the first instructor at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee and taught there for about 30 years, except for a year in Paris (1929–1930) when he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. During the 1930s, he did WPA projects for the Federal Art Project, including works for the Post Office and Court House in Wausau. He painted Milwaukee life and Wisconsin rural landscapes; his Spring in Wisconsin was shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In the late 1940s, he taught at the Ox‑Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan. He retired in 1954 after cofounders Miriam Frink and Charlotte Partridge resigned from Layton. He died in Milwaukee in 1955 at age 65.

Sinclair’s work is in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, Brooklyn Museum, Flint Institute of Arts, and Cedarburg Art Museum.