Editing Thomas Ball (artist) (section)

==Life==
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.<ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 4–5, 25</ref> 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 (theatre)|Boston Museum]].<ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 40ff.</ref> There, he entertained the visitors by drawing [[portrait]]s, playing the violin, singing, and repairing mechanical toys. He then became an apprentice for the museum [[wood carving|wood-carver]] Abel Brown. He taught himself [[oil painting]] by copying [[printmaking|prints]] and casts in the studio of the museum superintendent.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

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.<ref name=johnson /><ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 130</ref> His work includes many early cabinet busts of musicians.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 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.<ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 136–8, 290</ref> At thirty-five, in 1854, he travelled to [[Florence]] to study.<ref name=":0" />

===Musician===
Ball was an accomplished musician from his teenage years, working as a paid singer in Boston churches.<ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 69–70, 237</ref> 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 (oratorio)|Elijah]]'',<ref name=johnson>H. Earle Johnson, ''Hallelujah, Amen!: The Story of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston'' (Boston: Bruce Humphries, 1965), 64–6</ref><ref name=nytobit /> 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 [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]] with the [[Germania Orchestra]] on April 2, 1853.<ref>Johnson, ''Hallelujah'', 75</ref><ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 154</ref>

===Painter===
[[Image:Ball'sWebster.jpg|thumb|200px|right|''[[Statue of Daniel Webster (New York City)|Daniel Webster]]'' (1868), [[Central Park]], New York City.]]
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 Walter|Cornelia Wells (Walter) Richards]], editor of the ''[[Boston Evening Transcript]]''. He then turned his attention back to sculpture.

=== Sculptor ===
[[Image:Charles Sumner statue in Boston Public Garden - detail.JPG|thumb|left|200px|''[[Statue of Charles Sumner (Boston)|Charles Sumner]]'' (1878), [[Public Garden (Boston, Massachusetts)|The Public Garden]], Boston, Massachusetts.]]
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 Browning|Robert]] and [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning]] and [[Hiram Powers]]. Notables he met in Europe included [[Franz Liszt]], whom he met at the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] in 1865 and of whom he produced a portrait bust.<ref name=johnson /><ref name=":0">Ball, ''Threescore'', 273–5</ref>

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."<ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 297</ref>

[[Dartmouth College]] awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree.<ref name="Ball, Threescore, 216">Ball, ''Threescore'', 216</ref> When he returned to America, he lived in [[Montclair, New Jersey]], while keeping a studio in New York City.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref name="nytobit">{{cite news|title=Famous Sculptor Dead|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/12/12/104885468.pdf |accessdate=August 25, 2012|newspaper=New York Times|date=December 12, 1911}}</ref>

In 1880, Ball published an autobiographical volume, ''My Threescore Years'', which he updated in 1890 as ''My Three Score Years and Ten''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Sculptor Ball's Autobiography|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1891/10/18/106054283.pdf|accessdate=August 25, 2012|newspaper=New York Times|date=October 18, 1891}}</ref> He died at the Montclair home of his daughter, Eliza Chickering Ball, and son-in-law, sculptor [[William Couper (sculptor)|William Couper]].<ref name="nytobit" /><ref>Ball, ''Threescore'', 295</ref>