Samuel Laurence (also spelled Lawrence; 1812–28 February 1884) was a British

portrait painter Portrait Painting is a genre in painting, where the intent is to represent a specific human subject. The term 'portrait painting' can also describe the actual painted portrait. Portraitists may create their work by commission, for public and pr ...

Life

He was born at

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, Surrey, in 1812, and early manifested a great love for art. The first portraits which he exhibited were at the Society of British Artists in 1834, but in 1836 he sent three portraits, including that of Mrs. Somerville, to the exhibition of the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

. These were followed at the academy by portraits of the Right Hon. Thomas Erskine, 1838;

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, ...

, 1841; Sir Frederick Pollock, bart., 1842 and 1847;

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

, 1845; Dr.

William Whewell William Whewell ( ; 24 May 17946 March 1866) was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. In his time as a student there, he achieved ...

, 1847;

James Spedding James Spedding (28 June 1808 – 9 March 1881) was an English author, chiefly known as the editor of the works of Francis Bacon. Life He was born in Cumberland, the younger son of a country squire, and was educated at Bury St Edmunds and Trinity ...

, 1860; the Rev. William Hepworth Thompson, master of Trinity, and

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical sett ...

, 1869; Sir Thomas Watson, bart., M.D., 1870; and the Rev.

Frederick Denison Maurice John Frederick Denison Maurice (29 August 1805 – 1 April 1872), known as F. D. Maurice, was an English Anglican theologian, a prolific author, and one of the founders of Christian socialism. Since World War II, interest in Maurice has exp ...

, 1871. He exhibited also crayon drawings of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

('Sketch of Boz'), 1838;

John Hullah John Pyke Hullah (27 June 1812 – 21 February 1884) was an English composer and teacher of music, whose promotion of vocal training is associated with the singing-class movement. Life and career Hullah was born at Worcester. He was a pupil ...

, 1842; Professor

Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick (; 22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on ...

, 1845; the Rev.

, 1846;

George Grote George Grote (; 17 November 1794 – 18 June 1871) was an English political radical and classical historian. He is now best known for his major work, the voluminous ''History of Greece''. Early life George Grote was born at Clay Hill near B ...

, 1849; Lord Ashburton and Bernard Barton, 1850; Sir Henry Taylor, 1852; Sir William Bowman, bart., 1853; Sir Frederick Pollock and Lady Pollock, 1863;

James Anthony Froude James Anthony Froude ( ; 23 April 1818 – 20 October 1894) was an English historian, novelist, biographer, and editor of '' Fraser's Magazine''. From his upbringing amidst the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement, Froude intended to become a clerg ...

, Rev.

Hugh Stowell Hugh Stowell (3 December 1799 – 8 October 1865) was a Church of England clergyman with a reputation as a "vigorous and inspiring preacher". He was an implacable opponent of Catholic emancipation whose supporters built Christ Church in Sa ...

, and

William Makepeace Thackeray William Makepeace Thackeray (; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was a British novelist, author and illustrator. He is known for his satirical works, particularly his 1848 novel ''Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portrait of British society, and t ...

, 1864;

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

, 1865; Sir Henry Cole and Dean John Howson, 1866; William Spottiswoode, 1869; Lord-justice Sir Edward Fry, 1871; and Sir Theodore Martin, 1875. He ceased to exhibit at Suffolk Street in 1853, but his works continued to appear at the Royal Academy until 1882, when he sent a drawing of Mrs. Cross ('

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

'), made in 1860. Jacob Omnium

Early in life Laurence was brought into close relations with many of the eminent literary men of his time, and was on terms of great intimacy with

George Henry Lewes George Henry Lewes (; 18 April 1817 – 30 November 1878) was an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre. He was also an amateur physiologist. American feminist Margaret Fuller called Lewes a "witty, French, flippant sort of m ...

and Thornton Leigh Hunt; but his most intimate friend was

, the editor of Bacon. Many of his portraits of them have been engraved, the best-known being those of Thackeray reading a letter, Carlyle writing at his desk, Harriet lady Ashburton (in Lord Houghton's 'Monographs'),

, Mrs. Gaskell, Archbishop Trench, and

William Edward Forster William Edward Forster, PC, FRS (11 July 18185 April 1886) was an English industrialist, philanthropist and Liberal Party statesman. His supposed advocacy of the Irish Constabulary's use of lethal force against the National Land League ea ...

. His portraits of Tennyson and Carlyle are engraved in Home's 'New Spirit of the Age,' 1844. One of his most successful portraits in oil is that of Leigh Hunt, painted in 1837, but never quite finished. It was exhibited in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1868, and photographed for Leigh Hunt's 'Correspondence,' published in 1862. He died at 6 Wells Street, Oxford Street, London, from the effects of an operation, on 28 February 1884, in the seventy-second year of his age.

Family

Laurence married Anastasia Gliddon, cousin and adopted sister of Mrs. Thornton Leigh Hunt, and during his early married life he visited Florence and Venice. There, he diligently studied the methods of the old masters, and endeavouring to discover the secrets of their success. In 1854, he visited the United States, and while staying at

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

's residence in Massachusetts, he drew a portrait of

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that r ...

, which has been engraved.

Legacy

There are by him in the National Portrait Gallery portraits in oil of

and Sir Thomas Bourchier, R.N., and an unfinished head of Thackeray, as well as chalk drawings of Sir Frederick Pollock, bart., and Sir

Charles Wheatstone Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS FRSE DCL LLD (6 February 1802 – 19 October 1875), was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for di ...

, and an unfinished sketch of

Matthew James Higgins Matthew James Higgins (4 December 1810 – 14 August 1868) was a British writer who used the pen name Jacob Omnium, which was the title of his first magazine article. He was born in County Meath, Ireland to a landed family. He owned an estate in ...

('Jacob Omnium'). The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has a head in crayons of Thomas Carlyle. His portrait of Dr. Whewell is in

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, and one of Thackeray is in the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club on the south side of Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it comprised an all-male membership for decades, but it was one of the first all-male cl ...

, London.

References

;Attribution

External links

National Portrait Gallery
He made a portrait of Charles Dickens in 1838 {{DEFAULTSORT:Laurence, Samuel 1812 births 1884 deaths English portrait painters 19th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English male artists