AW7-050: Henry Chapman Ford San Luis Obispo Signed Antique Etching Dated 1883

Henry Chapman Ford (1828 - 1894) San Luis Obispo Signed Antique Etching Dated 1883. Signed in pencil to lower right margin. Titled and signed and dated "83" in plate.

Dimensions: Sight 8 1/2" x 14"; Frame 16" x 22"

Comments: Henry Chapman Ford (1828 - 1894) was an American illustrator well known for his depictions of California's missions. Born in Livonia New York, Ford studied art in Pairs and Florence in the late 1850's. During the Civil War he was a soldier assigned to prepare illustrations of interest to the military. After the Civil War he moved to Chicago Illinois, where in 1871 his studio was destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire. In 1875 he settled in Santa Barbara California where he would live out his days. Ford traveled by horse and buggy to each of the twenty-one Spanish missions in California, where he created a historically important portfolio of watercolors, oils, and etchings. His depictions of the missions were in part responsible for the revival of interest in the state's Spanish heritage, and indirectly for the restoration of the missions themselves. In 1883, Ford published his Etchings of the Franciscan Missions of California, and exhibited his works at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Ford died in 1894 in Santa Barbara.