Sydney Laurence

born Brooklyn, New York, 1865; died Anchorage, Alaska, 1940

BiographyBorn in Brooklyn, Sydney Laurence appears to have studied with the painter Edward Moran and was enrolled at the Art Students League in New York from 1888 to 1889. He exhibited frequently in New York and in the Paris Salons in the late 1890s and won a number of awards. From 1890 to 1904 he lived and worked in the artist colony in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, and exhibited at the Royal Society of British Arts in London among other international venues. In 1904 Laurence left his family in England and went to Alaska as a gold prospector. He began making images upon his arrival, but it was not until 1915 that he moved to Anchorage and once again established a studio. A prolific painter, Laurence is known for his images of Alaska’s frontier figures and its magnificent landscape, particularly of Mt. McKinley (now also known by its Native American name, Denali), which he painted many times.

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