Ole Peter Hansen Balling

Grant and His Generals

James Garfield

Chester A. Arthur

Portrait of Ulysses S. Grant

Ole Peter Hansen Balling (13 April 1823 – 1 May 1906) was a Norwegian artist. Balling is most commonly associated with his portraits, several of which are featured in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D. C. [1]
Grant and his Generals (1865) by Ole Peter Hansen Balling. National Portrait Gallery

Biography

Born in Christiana (now Oslo), Balling was a student of Norwegian artist Ferdinand Jonas Gjøs (1790–1852) and trained under Danish decorative painter Jacob Emilius Wunderlich (1809–1892). He was a student at art academies both in Berlin and Copenhagen and for a time studied with Thomas Couture in Paris.[2]

He emigrated to the United States in 1856, where he lived until 1874. He commanded the 145th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Balling painted portraits of several Union Army generals including Ulysses S. Grant, Richard Sheridan, John Sedgwick and James S. Wadsworth. Additionally he created portraits of prominent American statesmen including presidents Chester Arthur and James Garfield.[3][4]

In 1874, Balling returned to Norway to operate a painter workshop in Horten, at the time the site of Karljohansvern, the main base for the Royal Norwegian Navy. Here he painted portraits of several naval officers in the Norwegian Navy. Additionally he completed portraits of members of the Royal Bernadotte family including Kings Charles XIV John of Sweden, Oscar I of Sweden, Charles XV of Sweden and Oscar II of Sweden.[5][6] [7] [8]

Awards

Order of the Dannebrog – Denmark
Medal of Honor – United States

Gallery

Portrait of Ulysses S. Grant

Portrait of Chester A. Arthur

Portrait of John Brown

Portrait of James Garfield

References

Ole Peter Hansen Balling (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)
Champlin, John Denison, ed. (1886). Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings 2. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. p. 208. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
Ole Peter Hansen Balling (Ulysses S. Grant Homepage)
Ole Peter Hansen Balling from Weilbachs Kunstnerleksikon
Ole Peder Hansen Balling (Borreminne Årsskrift for Borre Historielag)
Ole Peter Hansen Balling (Store norske leksikon)
Ole Peter Hansen Balling, Maler (Norsk biografisk leksikon)

Ole Peter Hansen Balling, Maler (Norsk kunstnerleksikon)

Other Sources

Carr, Carolyn Kinder; Ellen G. Miles (2001) A Brush with History : Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery (National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution) ISBN 978-1584650805
Holzer, Harold; Mark E. Neely Jr, (2000) The Union Image: Popular Prints of the Civil War North (The University of North Carolina Press.) ISBN 978-0807825105
Lewis, R. W. B. ; Nancy Lewis (2001) American Characters: Selections from the National Portrait Gallery (Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 978-0300078954