Joseph Alexander Ames

Background

Joseph Alexander Ames was born Joseph Emes in 1816 at Roxbury, Massachusetts, United States. His brother Nathan was a poet and patent solicitor who invented many machines, including the escalator.

Education

Ames early set his mind upon becoming an artist and copied a portrait while he was still a boy. The copy was good enough for him to receive professional orders that kept him occupied in his native town until he was disposed to try his fortune in Boston. He soon established himself and although self-taught did his best work as a young man. Accumulating enough money to further his studies, he sailed for Italy in 1848 and settled in Rome. His portrait of Pope Pius IX was painted at this time. When his period of study ended, he returned to Boston.

Career

Ames kept a studio in Boston in Amory Hall (about 1849), and later on Tremont Street (about 1856), and then on Summer Street. His well-known full-length portrait of Daniel Webster, representing Webster standing with a long walking-stick and wearing a felt hat, was painted in 1852. This was the last portrait painted from life of Webster, who was at that time seventy years old. Ames also painted nine or more bust portraits of Webster, but not all of these are from life.

Ames lived in Baltimore during 1870 on account of his health, but the change proving without benefit he moved the same year to New York. He gained a reputation both as a genre and as a portrait painter and was constantly employed. Ames painted President William Conway Felton of Harvard, Rufus Choate, William H. Seward, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Marietta Gazzaniga, the singer. Some of his other works are "Maud Muller" and "The Old Stone Pitcher. " A steel engraving of the latter was popular in its day.

He died of brain fever after a short illness, leaving upon his easel a portrait of Adeline Ristori, the actress, in the character of "Medea. " The National Academy exhibition for that year contained two portraits of his, one of them of Ross Winans of Baltimore.

Achievements

• Ames became noted for his portraits of notables, figure and genre painting, especially portraits including at least nine depictions of Daniel Webster, famous American colonialist, and of Abraham Lincoln.

Membership

Ames was a member of the Boston Art Club and the National Academy of Design.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Ames paints on an average seventy-five portraits in a year; of course they often lack high finish; but his fresh and bright tints and frequent success in likeness--even the rapidity of his execution--contribute to his prosperous activity. " - Henry Theodore Tuckerman, writer, essayist, critic.

Connections

Ames was married to Sarah Fisher, a sculptor. They had a daughter, Josephine, who also became an artist.

Spouse:

Sarah (Fisher) Ames

Brother:

Nathan Ames

Daughter:

Josephine Ames

References

• Artists of Abraham Lincoln Portraits: Joseph Alexander Ames (Classic Reprint)
• Book of the Artists. American Artist Life, Comprising Biographical and Critical Sketches of American Artists: Preceded by an Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of art in America