|
|
|
*Known for his dramatic landscape paintings
of Alaska, Sydney Laurence was one of the first professionally trained artists to live in the Alaska Territory. His trademark
subject was Mt. McKinley. He traveled to Alaska around 1903 and, from 1904 into 1908, was in Tyonek on the north shore
of Cook Inlet. Laurence traveled to Cordova and painted there in 1908 and 1909, completing a 4-foot by 16-foot panorama.
Financially supported by friends, Laurence set up camp in the vicinity of Mount McKinley, the subject of hundreds of his paintings, often shown in the clouds. The unique qualities of the Alaskan light and the sense of human beings overwhelmed by nature especially fascinated him. He painted many views of McKinley, dating from 1911. In 1913, the Knapp Company produced a 1913 calendar with a Mt. McKinley chromolithograph view. The original painting was a 36" X 54" oil and likely was painted no later than 1912.
Although Mount McKinley was his trademark he also depicted sailing ships and steamships in Alaska waters, totem poles in Southeast Alaska, cabins under the Northern Lights, and Alaska Natives, miners and trappers engaged in their solitary lives in the Alaska wilderness. A large traveling retrospective exhibit of his work, "Sydney Laurence, Painter of the North", was held in 1990-1991. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and the Salmagundi Club
Sydney Laurence died in Anchorage, Alaska in 1940.
Sources:
Len Braarud, Braarud Fine Art
"Sydney Laurence, Painter of the North" (exhibition catalogue, 1990-1991)
Michael David Zellman, "300 Years of American Art"
Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"
*This is a Edited and limited Biography, for the full version see Laurence Biography on AskART:
Financially supported by friends, Laurence set up camp in the vicinity of Mount McKinley, the subject of hundreds of his paintings, often shown in the clouds. The unique qualities of the Alaskan light and the sense of human beings overwhelmed by nature especially fascinated him. He painted many views of McKinley, dating from 1911. In 1913, the Knapp Company produced a 1913 calendar with a Mt. McKinley chromolithograph view. The original painting was a 36" X 54" oil and likely was painted no later than 1912.
Although Mount McKinley was his trademark he also depicted sailing ships and steamships in Alaska waters, totem poles in Southeast Alaska, cabins under the Northern Lights, and Alaska Natives, miners and trappers engaged in their solitary lives in the Alaska wilderness. A large traveling retrospective exhibit of his work, "Sydney Laurence, Painter of the North", was held in 1990-1991. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists and the Salmagundi Club
Sydney Laurence died in Anchorage, Alaska in 1940.
Sources:
Len Braarud, Braarud Fine Art
"Sydney Laurence, Painter of the North" (exhibition catalogue, 1990-1991)
Michael David Zellman, "300 Years of American Art"
Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"
*This is a Edited and limited Biography, for the full version see Laurence Biography on AskART:
|
Sydney & Jeanne Laurence
"Golden North"
|
"Cabin
in the Alaska Hills" Sydney Laurence (1865-1940)
|
|
|