- Sydney Laurence
Sydney Mortimer Laurence (1865–1940) was a Romantic landscape painter and is widely considered one of
Alaska 's most important historical artists. He was born inBrooklyn, New York and studied at theArt Students League of New York . He married Alexandrina Fredricka Dupre in 1889, and they traveled to England, where they lived in anart colony in St. Ives inCornwall from 1889 to 1898. Laurence came to Alaska in 1903 or 1904.
thumb|The Silent Pool 1920-1930Oil on canvas 52cm. x 41cm.History
As one of Alaska's most widely beloved historical painters, Sydney Laurence was the first professionally trained artist to make Alaska his home. He was born in
Brooklyn ,New York City in 1865, and studied at theArt Students League of New York and exhibited regularly by the late 1880s.Settling in 1889 in the English artists' colony of
St Ives, Cornwall , over the next decade he exhibited at theRoyal Society of British Artists and was included in theParis Salon in 1890, 1894, and 1895, winning an award in 1894.Laurence moved to Alaska in 1904 for reasons still unknown. Living the hard life of the pioneer prospector, he painted little in his first years in the territory, but between 1911 and 1914 he began to focus once again on his art. He moved from Valdez to the budding town of Anchorage in 1915 and by 1920 was Alaska's most prominent painter.
Laurence painted a variety of Alaskan scenes in his long and prolific career, among them sailing ships and steamships in Alaskan waters, totem poles in Southeast Alaska, dramatic headlands and the quiet coves and streams of
Cook Inlet , cabins and caches under the northern lights, andAlaska Natives , miners, and trappers engaged in their often solitary lives in the northern wilderness.But the image of
Denali from the hills above the rapids of theTokositna River became his trademark. It is this image more than any other which personifies Laurence for his many admirers and collectors in Alaska and beyond.Laurence forged a uniquely personal style by applying the tonalist techniques he had learned in New York and Europe to the wilderness of the North. He, more than any other artist, defined for Alaskans and others the image of Alaska as "The Last Frontier."
He died in Anchorage in 1940.
References
*cite book|last=Woodward|first=Kesler|title=Sydney Laurence, Painter of the North|year=1990
External links
* [http://www.sydneylaurence.com SydneyLaurence.com]
* [http://www.alaskafreegold.com-a.googlepages.com/home43 Drive Guide to the Petersville Road/South Denali/Tokositna Area]
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