Biografie von Sydney Mortimer LAURENCE (1865-1940)

Birth place: Brooklyn, NY

Death place: Anchorage, Alaska

Addresses: NYC; Cornwall, England; Alaska/ Los Angeles, CA

Profession: Painter, illustrator

Studied: NAD, with Edward Moran; …cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1889-94

Exhibited: NAD, 1888-89, 1898; Boston AC, 1889, 1892; PAFA Ann., 1892, 1899; Salon des Artistes Français, 1894 (prize); AIC, 1898-99; Paris Salon, 1890, 1894-95; PPE, 1915

Member: Royal Soc. of British Artists; SC

Work: NMAA; Alaska Bank of Commerce, Anchorage; Anchorage Mus.; Shelburne (VT) Mus.

Comments: He ran off to sea as a boy, was shipwrecked and saved the captain's life. He returned home to study at the NAD. After further study in Paris, he went to England where he painted off and on for thirteen years. He then became a war correspondent for a London periodical; he lost his hearing while covering the Zulu war; was wounded during the Boer War; and also traveled to China. He returned to England for a time then went to Alaska as a gold prospector which proved unsuccessful. Lawrence returned to his cabin in Alaska many times to paint. He spent winters in Los Angeles for the last 18 years of his life. Specialty: Indians and Alaskan landscapes. Also appears as Lawarence, or Laurence.

Sources: P&H Samuels, 281; Hughes, Artists in California, 326; Muller, Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum, 88 (w/repros.); Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 364; Falk, Exh. Record Series.