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.

Likely born in 1842 in Glens Falls, New York, Ferguson was a landscape painter and highly 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 ...