[1][2] He learned landscape painting from William Harris in Rochester and Jasper Francis Cropsey of the Hudson River School in New York City.

[1] Bush became a professional landscape painter in San Francisco, California, initially on a part-time basis, until he opened a studio in the 1860s.

[2] His Mount Diablo gave him name recognition after it was purchased by Willard Brigham Farwell, the president of the Society of California Pioneers.

[3] Bush was hired by William Chapman Ralston to paint the landscapes of Panama, including the Chagres River.

[2] Bush died of complications from a cold he caught in Chicago on April 24, 1894, at the Fabiola Hospital in Oakland, California.