This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Henry Augustus Ferguson's paintings of tropical vegetation first earned him his artistic reputation. He would later sell City of Santiago for $10,000., an extremely sizable amount of money in the late 19th century.
Born
in 1845 in Glens Falls, New York, Ferguson was a landscape painter and
highy energetic world traveler, both in years spent and distances
covered, exploring exotic motifs for his paintings. Europe,
Mexico, South America, Egypt, were some of his destinations, including
the daunting Andes Mountains, which he traveled over a half dozen times.
Ferguson
eventually returned to New York City, where he had settled some years
before, and there he kept a studio where he did painting and
restoration. Categorized as one of the Hudson River School
painters, he often painted in the White Mountains, the Berkshires and
the Hudson River Valley where Glens Falls, his hometown with population
of about 10,000 people, was one of his subjects.
Whether in the American northeast or far-flung locales of the world,
Ferguson's romantic, meticulously detailed style was responsive to the
mood, character and beauty of the scenes before him.
Interestingly,
as a youth, Ferguson received no art training until moving from Glens
Falls to Albany, New York in the 1860s. He studied there with
painters Homer D. Martin and George Boughton, and sculptors Launt
Thompson and Charles Calverly. When enough time had passed, allowing
for the development of a following for his landscapes and architectural
paintings, he went to New York City, joining Martin there.
As a
mature artist very experienced in his craft, Ferguson was often hired
to restore old canvases. He was a member of the Century
Association and the National Academy of Design. His painting, Island of San Francisco in Deserto, Venice, ca. 1900, is in the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine.
Henry Augustus Ferguson died in 1911 in New York City.
Sources include:
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art
John Howat, The Hudson River and Its Painters
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Henry Ferguson is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Hudson River School Painters
Painted in Latin America
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