Franz de Paula Ferg

1689-1740 Austrian

Detailed small landscapes and peasant scenes

Franz de Paula Ferg, also known as Francis Paul Ferg, was an Austrian painter, draughtsman, and printmaker. He painted primarily scenes of daily life, such as people interacting in markets and villages. Ferg was born in Vienna on 2 May 1689, the son of the history painter Adam Pancraz Ferg, from whom he received his initial artistic education. His father then placed him under a painter called Baschueber, with whom he remained for four years. He returned to his father's house, and studied the engravings of Callot and Le Clerc, whose peculiarities proved a great influence on his style. He then studied at Vienna under Hans Graaf, a painter of small landscapes with figures, fairs, etc., but more permanently under Joseph Orient, a well-known landscape painter, in whose house he lived for three years, often painting the figures in his landscapes. In 1718 Ferg he left for Vienna and settled for some years at Bamberg. Meeting with the landscape-painter Alexander Thiele at Leipzig, he went with him to Dresden, and worked with him there for some time. He soon gained a great reputation for small landscapes and sea-pieces with figures, and for fairs and peasant scenes in the style of Ostade, Berchem, and Poelenburg. These were executed, often on copper, with great care and industry, well-coloured and exquisitely finished. He eventually settled in London. Although he found plenty of employment there, he drifted into depressed circumstances. According to some sources this was due to his own irresponsibility and an ill-advised marriage. This version of events was, however, disputed by Noel Desenfans, who attributed Ferg's difficulties to a head injury caused by a blow from falling roof-tile, which rendered him unable to paint. One night in 1740 he was found dead in the street, not far from his lodgings, in a condition of great destitution.