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Sydney M. Laurence (1865-1940) was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1865, and died in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1940. Laurence studied under famed maritime artist Edward Moran and the Art Student League of New York. Laurence lived in Cornwall, England artist colony at St. Ives from 1889 until 1898. Exhibited: Royal Salon of British Artists and Paris Salon, 1890,1894(honorable mention), 1895. Laurence was an artist-correspondent in the Spanish American War and for Black and White in South Africa. In search of gold he arrived in Alaska in 1904. Laurence spent his time between Alaska, Los Angeles, California and the Seattle/Tacoma Washington area. He is considered Alaska's foremost historical painter. An entire gallery is dedicated to him at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. Laurence paintings hang in museums in Alaska, New York, Vermont, Washington and in the White House in Washington DC.
Sydney M. Laurence is considered the
foremost twentieth-century painter of the
Alaska landscape. Laurence came to Alaska around 1904, after studying art
in New York and
Europe and pursuing a career as a foreign correspondent in Africa. Like
the thousands who came
to Alaska seeking gold, Laurence was an unsuccessful miner. To survive,
Laurence exchanged his
gold pan for his artists' palette, and briefly opened a photography studio
in the fledgling town of
Anchorage. However, he soon abandoned photography for a career in
painting.
Laurence was fascinated by the vast scale and high
drama of the Alaska landscape, and was
particularly drawn to Mount McKinley. Humans rarely intrude onto his
canvases: when they do
appear, they are minor players dwarfed by their surroundings. Laurence was
intent on capturing the
distinctive Alaska light that filtered through the clouds and reflected in
the sky, water, and mountains.
Much of Laurence's work was tailored to the tastes
of average Alaska residents-as well as to
summer excursionists touring Alaska-hungry for beautiful scenes of
Alaska's forests and waters.
Today Laurence remains a beloved figure. His paintings are heirlooms to
many of Alaska's
"pioneers" and grace numerous museum collections.
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Biographical information obtained from various sources including Sydney Laurence, Painter of the North, by Kesler E. Woodward
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