or **FERGUE**, **FRANCIS PAUL**, a landscape painter, was born at Vienna in 1689, and there learned the first principles of his art. He successively practised under Hans Graf, Orient, and Thiele. The last of these, who was painter to the court of Saxony, having invited him to Dresden to insert small figures in his landscapes, Ferg repaired to that city, whence he proceeded into Lower Saxony, and painted for the Duke of Brunswick and for the gallery of Salzdahl. From Germany he passed over to London, where he might have lived in esteem and affluence, had he not, by an indiscreet marriage, involved himself in difficulties from which he was never able to extricate himself, and which, it is said, terminated only by his death from actual starvation. This pleasing artist, Walpole observes, had formed a manner of his own from various Flemish painters, though resembling Poelemburg most in the enamelled softness and mellowness of his colouring; but his figures are greatly superior, every part of them being sufficiently finished, and every action expressive. He painted small landscapes, fairs, and rural meetings, with much natural truth; his horses and cattle are not inferior to those of Wouwermans; and his buildings and distances seem to owe their respective softness to the intervening air, not to the pencil. More faithful to nature than Denner, he knew how to omit exactness when the result of the whole demanded less precision in parts. The greater number of his works are in London and Germany; and the price they now bear is the best proof of their real merit. He also etched well with aqua fortis; and his works of that description are highly esteemed by print-collectors.