American sculptor and musician (1819?1911)
Thomas Ball
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Born
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1819-06-03
)
June 3, 1819
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Died
| December 11, 1911
(1911-12-11)
(aged 92)
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Known for
| Sculpture
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Thomas Ball
(June 3, 1819 ? December 11, 1911) was an American sculptor and musician. His work has had a marked influence on
monumental art
in the United States, especially in
New England
.
Life
[
edit
]
He was born in
Charlestown, Massachusetts
, to Thomas Ball, a house and sign painter, and Elizabeth Wyer Hall. His father died when he was twelve.
[1]
After several odd jobs to help support his family, he spent three years working at the New England Museum, the precursor to the
Boston Museum
.
[2]
There, he entertained the visitors by drawing
portraits
, playing the violin, singing, and repairing mechanical toys. He then became an apprentice for the museum
wood-carver
Abel Brown. He taught himself
oil painting
by copying
prints
and casts in the studio of the museum superintendent.
His earliest work was a bust of
Jenny Lind
, whom he saw on her 1850 tour of the United States. Copies of his Lind work and his bust of Daniel Webster sold widely before being widely copied by others.
[4]
[5]
His work includes many early cabinet busts of musicians.
His first statue of a figure was a two-foot high statue of Daniel Webster, on which he worked from photographs and engravings until he managed to see him pass his studio shortly before his death.
[6]
At thirty-five, in 1854, he travelled to
Florence
to study.
[7]
Musician
[
edit
]
Ball was an accomplished musician from his teenage years, working as a paid singer in Boston churches.
[8]
He performed as an unpaid soloist with the
Handel and Haydn Society
beginning in 1846 and with that organization, sang the title role in the first United States performance of Mendelssohn's
Elijah
,
[4]
[9]
and the baritone solos in Rossini's
Moses in Egypt
. On a visit to Boston years later, he performed the baritone role in Boston's first performance of
Beethoven
's
Ninth Symphony
with the
Germania Orchestra
on April 2, 1853.
[10]
[11]
Painter
[
edit
]
As commissions started to come in, he moved from studio to studio until he settled in a studio in
Tremont Row
in
Boston
, where he remained for twelve years. There, he painted several religious pictures and a portrait of
Cornelia Wells (Walter) Richards
, editor of the
Boston Evening Transcript
. He then turned his attention back to sculpture.
Sculptor
[
edit
]
He stayed in Boston until 1865 when he returned to Florence to stay there until 1897 as a member of an artistic colony that included
Robert
and
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
and
Hiram Powers
. Notables he met in Europe included
Franz Liszt
, whom he met at the
Vatican
in 1865 and of whom he produced a portrait bust.
[4]
[7]
He made it a practice never to attend the unveiling of his public works. In Boston, he managed to avoid receiving the invitation to the ceremonial dedication of his statue of Governor
John Albion Andrew
. Instead, he saw the work later, viewing it from different angles. He later wrote: "It was a mean thing to do. I am ashamed of it now, but I could not bring myself to stand on that platform and face the multitude."
[12]
Dartmouth College
awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree.
[13]
When he returned to America, he lived in
Montclair, New Jersey
, while keeping a studio in New York City.
[9]
In 1880, Ball published an autobiographical volume,
My Threescore Years
, which he updated in 1890 as
My Three Score Years and Ten
.
[14]
He died at the Montclair home of his daughter, Eliza Chickering Ball, and son-in-law, sculptor
William Couper
.
[9]
[15]
Selected works
[
edit
]
- Bust of
Jenny Lind
(plaster, 1851),
New York Historical Society
, New York City.
- Bust of Daniel Webster
(bronze),
Hood Museum of Art
,
Dartmouth College
, Hanover, New Hampshire.
- Statuette of
Daniel Webster
(bronze, 1853).
- Four bas-relief panels (bronze, 1856), on base of
Richard Saltonstall Greenough
's
Benjamin Franklin
statue,
Old City Hall
, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Statuette of
Henry Clay
(bronze, 1858),
U.S. Senate
Art Collection,
U.S. Capitol
, Washington, D.C.
[16]
- Daniel Webster
(bronze, 1860?1868),
Central Park
, New York City.
- Equestrian Statue of George Washington
(bronze, 1864),
Boston Public Garden
, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Bust of
Edward Everett
(marble, 1867),
Boston Public Library
, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Edwin Forrest
as "Coriolanus"
(marble, 1867),
Walnut Street Theater
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[13]
[18]
- Josiah Quincy
(bronze, 1869),
Old City Hall
, Boston, Massachusetts.
[19]
- John Albion Andrew
(marble, 1870), Doric Hall,
Massachusetts State House
, Boston, Massachusetts.
[20]
[21]
- "The Angel of Death Lifting the Veil from the Eyes of Faith" (
Jonas Chickering
Monument
) (marble, 1872),
Mount Auburn Cemetery
, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
[4]
- Saint John the Evangelist
(marble, 1875),
Forest Hills Cemetery
, Boston, Massachusetts. Replaced by a
polymer
replica, 2001.
- Emancipation Memorial
(bronze, 1875),
Lincoln Park
, Washington, D.C.
- A copy of this was in
Park Square
, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Charles Sumner
(bronze, 1878),
Boston Public Garden
, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Daniel Webster
(bronze, 1885?86),
New Hampshire State House
, Concord, New Hampshire.
[22]
The commission was first given to sculptor
Martin Milmore
, then to his brother. Ball took it over following the deaths of both Milmores.
[23]
This poses differently from his earlier Webster statues.
- P. T. Barnum
(bronze, 1887), Seaside Park,
Bridgeport, Connecticut
.
[24]
[25]
Washington Monument
[
edit
]
- George Washington Monument
(1883?1893),
Methuen, Massachusetts
.
[26]
[27]
This was Ball's most complex and ambitious work, consisting of a 15-foot bronze statue of Washington, four larger-than-life seated figures, four portrait busts, and four eagles flanked by flags, all displayed on a multi-tiered marble base. The monument was created at Ball's studio in Florence, Italy. His son-in-law,
William Couper
, assisted in modeling the figures. It was exhibited at the
World's Columbian Exposition
before being installed in Methuen, Massachusetts, and dedicated on February 22, 1900.
- George Washington
- Cincinnatus
(seated figure of Washington)
- Revolution
(seated figure)
- Oppression
(seated figure)
- Victory
(seated figure)
- Bust of the Marquis de LaFayette
- Bust of General Henry Knox
- Bust of General Nathaniel Greene
- Bust of General Benjamin Lincoln
- Four sets of
Eagles and Flags
The monument was sold in 1958, disassembled, and moved to
Forest Lawn Memorial Park
, Hollywood Hills, California.
[28]
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
Benjamin Franklin, Printer
(1856),
Old City Hall
, Boston, Massachusetts.
-
Edward Everett
(1867),
Boston Public Library
, Boston, Massachusetts.
-
Josiah Quincy
(1869),
Old City Hall
, Boston, Massachusetts.
-
Jonas Chickering Monument
(1872),
Mount Auburn Cemetery
, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
-
Love's Memories
(1873),
High Museum of Art
, Atlanta, Georgia.
-
Saint John the Evangelist
(1875),
Smithsonian American Art Museum
, Washington, D.C.
-
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 4?5, 25
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 40ff.
- ^
a
b
c
d
H. Earle Johnson,
Hallelujah, Amen!: The Story of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston
(Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1965), 64?6
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 130
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 136?8, 290
- ^
a
b
Ball,
Threescore
, 273?5
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 69?70, 237
- ^
a
b
c
"Famous Sculptor Dead"
(PDF)
.
New York Times
. December 12, 1911
. Retrieved
August 25,
2012
.
- ^
Johnson,
Hallelujah
, 75
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 154
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 297
- ^
a
b
Ball,
Threescore
, 216
- ^
"Sculptor Ball's Autobiography"
(PDF)
.
New York Times
. October 18, 1891
. Retrieved
August 25,
2012
.
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 295
- ^
United States Senate:
"Henry Clay"
. Retrieved August 25, 2012
- ^
Harding, Jonathan (1984).
The Boston Athenaeum Collection: Pre-Twentieth Century American and European Painting and Sculpture
. Northeastern University Press. p. 16.
- ^
"Ball's Statue of Edwin Forrest as Coriolanus"
(PDF)
.
New York Times
. July 29, 1867
. Retrieved
August 26,
2012
.
- ^
John A. Andrew
from Boston Public Library via Flickr.
- ^
General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
Andrew, John Albion
, accessed September 2, 2012
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 276?7, 378
- ^
Daniel Webster
from PaintedBunting via Flickr.
- ^
Official Proceedings at the Dedication of the Statue of Daniel Webster at Concord, New Hampshire on the 17th Day of June 1886
, (Manchester, NH: John B. Clarke, 1886), p. 9.
[1]
- ^
"P.T. Barnum Monument, Bridgeport"
. CT Monuments
. Retrieved
August 25,
2012
.
- ^
Ball,
Threescore
, 317
- ^
Washington Monument, Methuen, Massachusetts
from CardCow.
- ^
Washington Monument
from bigmikelakers via Flickr.
- ^
"Hollywood Hills: Court of Liberty where it sits to this day"
. Forest Lawn. Archived from
the original
on June 20, 2012
. Retrieved
August 26,
2012
.
- Attribution
Sources
[
edit
]
- Taft,
History of American Sculpture
(New York, 1903)
- Nash, Edwin G., "Ball, Thomas" in
Dictionary of American Biography
, vol. 1 (NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928)
- Thomas Ball,
My Threescore Years And Ten: An Autobiography
(Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1891)
- Thomas Ball,
My Fourscore Years
(Los Angeles: Trecavalli Press, 1993)
- http://www.wingedsun.com/books/ball.htm
External links
[
edit
]
- Thomas Ball
at Smithsonian Institution Research Information System.
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Artists
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