Henry Augustus Loop was born in Hillsdale, New York on September 9, 1831.

[1] He was educated in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and studied with Henry Peters Gray in New York and Thomas Couture in Paris.

[2] He became an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1859, and was elevated to full membership two years later.

Loop died at his summer home in Lake George, New York on October 20, 1895.

[1][2] Portraits in the National Academy's collection by Loop include a self-portrait, as well as those of his wife, James Renwick Brevoort, James David Smillie, and John Bunyan Bristol.