Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Dublin, Ireland

Biography

sketcher, explorer and civil engineer, was born on 7 April 1821 in Dublin, third son of Major Benjamin Ball of the 40th Regiment of Foot. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. Early in 1839 he came to Sydney where he practised his profession of civil engineer for eight years. Ball’s lifestyle was bohemian and somewhat nomadic, unlike his elder brother, the Right Honourable J.T. Ball, whose distinguished career included the position of lord chancellor of Ireland. In 1847 Adam Gustavus Ball helped overland a mob of cattle to Adelaide, then remained in South Australia working as a surveyor and taking part in expeditions of exploration. He was known on every outlying sheep and cattle station for his genial disposition and his skill with a pencil. His sketches include incidents such as cattle musters, kangaroo hunts and camp scenes, all executed with verve in a bold, free style. Unfortunately, an accident prevented the continuation of these sorties into the bush. Ball exhibited with the Society of Arts at Adelaide in 1859 and 1860. Many of his sketches were reproduced as photographs by Townsend Duryea and G.J. Freeman in the 1860s and early 1870s and apparently sold well. Numerous originals survive, including at least two large watercolours of a kangaroo hunt (NLA). The Art Gallery of South Australia holds The Cattle Run (c.1865, w/c), Dog Chasing a Kangaroo (1860, w/c), and two pencil drawings wryly captioned ' Ah! By the By! Do you want many wool bales this season? ' and ' Coves what I know better than rarey '. These last were probably drawn during the drought of 1864-65, which bitterly disproved Goyder 's optimistic estimates of the pastoral possibilities of the country along the Flinders Ranges. Much of Ball’s work is only initialled 'A.G.B.’, such as an album of eight pencil drawings of Australian landscape and outback scenes, including another kangaroo hunt (1869-70, ATL) and two pencil drawings, Aborigine Hunting Emus and Aborigine Hunting Kangaroos (sold in 1983). A photograph of a pencil drawing of the death of the Victorian explorer Robert O’Hara Burke carrying these initials and titled 'When I am Dead, Place My Revolver in My Hand and Leave Me Unburied as I Lie’ (1871, ML) was, somewhat incongruously, included in Duryea’s Adelaide Album (1866) otherwise filled with photographic views of Adelaide streets and buildings. Ball’s elegant design for the McKinley monument at Gawler, South Australia, was unfortunately rejected by the selection committee, which chose to erect a monument to the design of the architect John Rudall in 1874-75 instead. Adam Gustavus Ball died at his residence in Childers Street, North Adelaide, on 22 August 1882, aged 61. He was survived by his wife and two daughters. Writers: Staff Writer Date written: 1992 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 7 April 1821

Summary

Like so many artists of the period, Ball's job as a civil engineer allowed him to travel throughout South Australia recording scenes of outback life and the Australian landscape.

Gender

Male

Died

22 August 1882

Age at death

61