Mrs John Ball, Painter
(fl. 1809-1811)
Painter
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Louisa Noel, daughter of a solicitor in London; married, about 1807, John Ball, son of John Ball, of Eccles Street, Dublin, silk manufacturer.* She exhibited landscapes and portraits in Dublin in 1809, 1810 and 1811, and taught painting and drawing. While still a young woman she was left a widow at the death of her husband on 24th July, 1810. In that year she was giving lessons to ladies at No. 28 Dame Street in drawing on velvet, painting on glass and, according to an advertisement issued by her, "every style of painting in oil, water-colours, crayons, etc" ("Freeman's Journal," January, 1810). She also stated that she was patronized by the King, the Princesses, and the Duchess of Rutland. In 1811 she was at 51 Dominick Street. She afterwards went to London to live with her mother, leaving her children, a son and two daughters, to the care of her husband's relations, and soon after she married Michael Furnell of Cahirelly Castle, County Limerick. She died on 23rd February, 1863. Her mother, Mrs. Amelia Noel, was a teacher of landscape drawing and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1795 to 1804. She was staying with her daughter in Dublin in 1810, and exhibited landscapes with the Society of Artists in Hawkins Street. A water-colour drawing of Windermere by her is in the British Museum; it was engraved by J. Walker in the Copper Plate Magazine, 1798, vol. iv.
* John Ball, senior, by his second wife was father of Judge Nicholas Ball and of Frances Maria, foundress of the Loreto Convent, Rathfarnham.