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MARBLE BUST OF EVE BY THOMAS BALL (AMERICAN, 1819-1911) signed and dated 'T. Ball 1874', beautifully carved in the round with leaves and berries on the reverse; Thomas Ball (American, 1818-1911) was a Renaissance man: a gifted singer, musician, poet, painter and sculptor. He spent most of his adult life in Florence, where he was part of a group o f artists that included American sculptor Hiram Powers. Ball became close with Powers and wrote in his autobiography, "Powers often visited me to bless me with his criticism and advice" [p. 200]. In 1865, Thomas Ball built a villa next door to the Powers family. Hiram Powers's influence can be seen in the present bust of Eve (Eve Tempted [1842] and Eve Disconsolate [1871] [see H. Clark, pp. 82-83]). Thomas Ball became quite celebrated by the 1860s and received numerous public commissions including the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., the equestrian statue of George Washington in the Boston Public Garden, and the statue of Daniel Webster in Central Park, New York, h: 18.5 in.; h: (with socle) 22.5 in. Provenance: Private Collection, Annapolis Literature: Comparative Literature: Thomas Ball, My Threescore Years and Ten, An Autobiography, Boston, 1892 (reprint) H. Nichols B. Clark, A Marble Quarry, The James H. Ricau Collection of Sculpture at the Chrysler Museum of Art, New York, 1997