Henry Chapman Ford (1828-1894) American, Etchings. Set of 4 California Mission Etchings. Including Mission Dolores, Mission San Gabriel, Mission San Miguel, and Mission Sonoma. All signed and dated '83. Overall Size: 11 1/2 x 16 1/8 in. Sight Size: 10 5/8 x 15 1/4 in. #1049 #1050 #1051 #1052 . Best known for his 1883 series of etchings on the Franciscan missions of California, Henry Chapman Ford was raised in Livonia, New York, and began painting as a youth without the benefit of instruction. After working in a counting house for several years, he moved to the West and settled in Moline, Illinois, a growing community on the banks of the Mississippi. During this residence he sketched views along the river, which were lithographed and sold to subscribers. By 1858 Ford had saved enough money for formal study in Europe, but after a month in the Paris studio of C. P. Cranch, he took off on his own, copying pictures in the museums and sketching in the countryside. On his return to the United States in 1861, Ford enlisted in the Union Army and served in Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, furnishing the illustrated press with sketches of army life until 1862, when he was forced by ill health to seek a medical discharge. Recuperating in Chicago, Ford opened a studio and became the city's first landscape painter. One of the founder's of the Chicago Academy of Design (the predecessor of the Art Institute), he served as its president for several years. In 1871 his studio burned and he lost most of his work. In failing health, he moved to California in 1875 and settled in Santa Barbara.