Joseph Alexander Ames
{{Short description|American artist}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Joseph Ames by Kilburn 1859.png
| caption = Ames in 1859
| name = Joseph Ames
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1816|07|16}}
| birth_place = Roxbury, New Hampshire, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1872|10|30|1816|07|16}}
| death_place = New York City
| occupation = Artist
| spouse = Sarah Fisher Ames
| relatives = Nathan Ames (brother)
}}
Joseph Alexander Ames (1816–1872) was an American artist, primarily known for portrait and genre painting.
Biography
Originally named Joseph Emes, he was born in Roxbury, New Hampshire.{{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Ames, Joseph |volume= 1 |pages= 103-104 |short=}} Ames began painting at a young age. At the age of twelve Henry Theodore Tuckerman wrote about one of his paintings. After moderate success at home in Saugus, Massachusetts, he left for Boston in 1841. While in Boston, Ames tried to replicate the style of Washington Allston. In 1848, Ames traveled to Rome, where he painted a portrait of Pope Pius IX that was featured at the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition in 1850. When he returned from Italy he was commissioned by Rufus Choate, Daniel Webster, and Abraham Lincoln. He kept a studio in Boston in Amory Hall (ca.1849),Boston Directory, 1849 and later on Tremont Street (ca.1856),Boston Directory, 1856 and then on Summer Street.Boston Directory, 1861 Ames exhibited at the Boston Athenæum, the National Academy of Design, and the Pennsylvania Academy. He eventually moved to Baltimore, and then to New York, where he died of a "brain fever". He died on October 30, 1872.
Image:AbeLincoln ca1865 byJosephAlexanderAmes.png
Ames was one of the founding Members of the Boston Art Club. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1870.
His brother Nathan was a poet and patent solicitor who invented many machines, including the escalator. His wife, Sarah Fisher Ames was a sculptor.
References
{{reflist}}
- {{cite book | title = Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896 | publisher = Marquis Who's Who | date = 1967}}
- {{cite book | title = Historical Notes of Keene and Roxbury | author = Samuel Wadsworth | publisher = Sentinel Printing Co | date = 1932}}
- {{cite book | title = Painting and Sculpture in the Collection of National Academy of Design
| author =David B. Dearinger | publisher = Hudson Hills | date = 2004}}
- {{cite book | title = The New England Magazine | author =Making of America Project| publisher = New England Magazine Co. | date = 1885}}
External links
{{commons category|Joseph Alexander Ames}}
- [http://americanartgallery.org/artist/home/id/49 Joseph Alexander Ames at American Art Gallery]
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/a-gypsy-girl-30980 A Gypsy Girl], by Ames, about 1850–70
- [http://bostonartclub.com Boston Art Club] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203023015/http://www.bostonartclub.com/ |date=2011-02-03 }}
- [http://www.askart.com/askart/a/joseph_alexander_ames/joseph_alexander_ames.aspx Askart.com page]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Joseph}}
Category:People from Saugus, Massachusetts
Category:People from Roxbury, New Hampshire
Category:19th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:19th-century American male artists
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