biographie de Ole Peter Hansen BALLING (1823-1906)

Birth place: Christiania (Oslo), Norway

Death place: Oslo, Norway

Addresses: NYC, from 1856 (stationed in Virginia, 1861-62)

Profession: Portrait painter

Studied: Oslo, Norway; Berlin, Germany

Exhibited: NAD, 1863-80; Brooklyn AA, 1863-71 (as H.Balling at both venues)

Work: Smithsonian Institution at Washington (Civil War canvas depicting Gen. U.S. Grant and twenty-six of his generals)

Comments: Lived in Copenhagen and Paris after his studies, and came to NYC in 1856. During the Civil War he served as captain in the New York Infantry Volunteers. He is best known for his Civil War paintings, including portraits of generals, and one of Abraham Lincoln.

Sources: G&W; Thieme-Becker; BÈnÈzit; Mayo, cites Washington Sunday Star, Sept. 27, 1931; Rutledge, PA; NAD Cats. 1863-80 (courtesy Mary Bartlett Cowdrey); Wright, Artists in Virgina Before 1900.