Lawrence MacDonald RSA, HRSA
Other names: M'Donald
Born 15 February 1799
Died 4 March 1878
Active: 1828 - 1865
Country of birth: Scotland
Country of death: Italy
Sculptor
Born at Bonnyview, Findo Gask, Perthshire. He first moved to Rome in the early 1820s, where he set up as a sculptor of portrait busts. He was a founder member of the British Academy of Arts in Rome 1822-3.
In the early 1820s he was made an associate of the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland. After a period back in Scotland (1826-32) he settled permanently in Rome where he died in 1878. His son, Alexander (born 1847) also became a sculptor, and carved his father's headstone.
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
p.55
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1828 - 1857
Exhibited 21 times but only 4 times post-1851, showed 1 work to 1840 then between 1 and 6 per year. The majority were portrait busts.
Exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition, 1826-
1832 - 1926
Exhibited at the annual exhibition 7 times: 1832 (7 works), 1837 (1 work), 1841 (1 work), 1855 (1 work), 1865 (1 work), 1880 (1 work) and 1926 (1 work)
Exhibited at Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (London), 1851
1851
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected honorary member of The Royal Scottish Academy
1858
Elected RSA The Royal Scottish Academy
1829
Resigned from The Royal Scottish Academy
1858
Personal and Professional Connections
Mother/father/parent of Alexander MacDonald
Sat for bust by George Edwin Ewing
1861
Sat for bust by John Hutchison
1861
Sources
'Memorial sculpture in the Protestant Cemetery at Rome: New discoveries and an inventory of identified works'
2022
p. 197 and p. 211
A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851
2009
pp. 775-81
Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851
Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue
1851
p. 711 (2)
International exhibition 1862, official catalogue, fine art department
1862
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Martin Greenwood, ‘Macdonald, Lawrence (1799–1878)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17445, accessed 27 Aug 2009]
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
1855
p.55
Citing this record
'Lawrence MacDonald RSA, HRSA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib6_1207734225, accessed 04 Jun 2023]
