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for Alexander Lawrie
1828 - 1917
The son of a Scotch immigrant, Alexander Lawrie manifested an early desire to pursue a career as a painter. His disapproving parents compromised and apprenticed him to a wood engraver in 1843. While continuing his apprenticeship, Lawrie studied in the National Academy's antique school (1844-5, 1847-8). By 1852, he had moved to Philadelphia where he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Several years later, he left for Europe, studyied in Paris and then in Düsseldorf with Emanuel Leutze. By December 1855, he was in Florence, seeking instruction at the Academy of Fine Arts and studying the Tuscan landscape. Returning to the United States, he spent time in New York but settled in Philadelphia, once again enrolling at the Pennsylvania Academy.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Lawrie enlisted in the 17th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged during the summer of 1863 for severe kidney illness brought on by the adverse living conditions. After convalescing at Lake George, New York, he opened a studio in New York and spent additional time studying the figure in the Academy Antique (1866-7) and Life (1866-8) Schools. At the same time, he became friends with artists Asher B. Durand and William T. Richards. During the late 1860s, he concentrated on Adirondack and Hudson-River scenery, but by 1870, he had changed his emphasis to portraiture.
Worried and upset by his lack of success as an artist, Lawrie left New York in 1878. He spent three years in Hartford, Connecticut, moved to Indiana and Chicago for six years, and, after a brief visit to Denver, Colorado, returned to New York. In 1895, he moved in with his brother in Indiana but, after an argument, went to a soldiers' home in Hampton, Virginia, where he spent two years. After a short time in New York's Bellevue Hospital, Lawrie finally ended up at the State Soldiers' Home in Lafayette, Indiana, where he spent the rest of his life painting, producing over 150 portraits of Civil War soldiers.
In 1908, a staff member of the National Academy wrote to several individuals requesting information on the supposedly deceased Lawrie. Respondents commented on his intense patriotism, his cantankerous nature, and his mania for cleanliness. The eighty-year-old Lawrie also wrote, explaining the circumstances of his 1874 resignation from the Academy and the subsequent final break with the NAD in 1882:
. . . you are entirely mistaken in classing me as an associate of the National Academy of Design at New York City. I am not an assoicate, my name was dropped from the list fifteen or twenty years past, the reason given for so doing was, because I had not exhibited in the academy. . . . I had, I thought, sound reasons for not exhibiting. I was not consulted at the time I was proposed and elected an associate and accepted unwillingly the honor conferred upon me, and I would feel grateful if you would allow my name to remain `dropped' for I really do not wish to be identified with the Academy as an Associate member.
JD
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Lawrie enlisted in the 17th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was discharged during the summer of 1863 for severe kidney illness brought on by the adverse living conditions. After convalescing at Lake George, New York, he opened a studio in New York and spent additional time studying the figure in the Academy Antique (1866-7) and Life (1866-8) Schools. At the same time, he became friends with artists Asher B. Durand and William T. Richards. During the late 1860s, he concentrated on Adirondack and Hudson-River scenery, but by 1870, he had changed his emphasis to portraiture.
Worried and upset by his lack of success as an artist, Lawrie left New York in 1878. He spent three years in Hartford, Connecticut, moved to Indiana and Chicago for six years, and, after a brief visit to Denver, Colorado, returned to New York. In 1895, he moved in with his brother in Indiana but, after an argument, went to a soldiers' home in Hampton, Virginia, where he spent two years. After a short time in New York's Bellevue Hospital, Lawrie finally ended up at the State Soldiers' Home in Lafayette, Indiana, where he spent the rest of his life painting, producing over 150 portraits of Civil War soldiers.
In 1908, a staff member of the National Academy wrote to several individuals requesting information on the supposedly deceased Lawrie. Respondents commented on his intense patriotism, his cantankerous nature, and his mania for cleanliness. The eighty-year-old Lawrie also wrote, explaining the circumstances of his 1874 resignation from the Academy and the subsequent final break with the NAD in 1882:
. . . you are entirely mistaken in classing me as an associate of the National Academy of Design at New York City. I am not an assoicate, my name was dropped from the list fifteen or twenty years past, the reason given for so doing was, because I had not exhibited in the academy. . . . I had, I thought, sound reasons for not exhibiting. I was not consulted at the time I was proposed and elected an associate and accepted unwillingly the honor conferred upon me, and I would feel grateful if you would allow my name to remain `dropped' for I really do not wish to be identified with the Academy as an Associate member.
JD
