Alexander Lawrie was born in New York City in 1828. As a youth he was apprenticed to an engraver and later studied drawing at the National Academy of Design. From 1850 to 1854 he studied in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. There his most notable teacher was Paul Gottlieb Weber, an influential landscape artist from Germany whose other pupils of this era included Thomas Moran, William S. Haseltine and William Trost Richards.

Of all of these students Richards proved to be the best friend and traveling companion, and in 1855 the two went abroad to first to Dusseldorf then to Paris. Lawrie then went alone on to Florence, returning to Philadelphia in 1858. He served in the Union Army in the Civil War, and went abroad again briefly in 1865.

From 1866 to 1876 he lived in New York, where he also maintained a studio. In 1868 he was elected to Associate of the National Academy of Design. By 1896 he was living in Chalmers, Indiana and in 1902 he was admitted to the Indiana State soldiers Home, where he died in 1917.

During his last years Lawrie painted a series of 158 portraits of Civil War generals. According to the Smithsonian Institutions SIRIS web site, many of those works still belong to the State of Indiana. Other institutions that hold his work include the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY; the Adirondack Museum of Blue Mountain Lake, NY; and the National Academy of Design in New York City.

Source:
Alexander Boyle, who was featured on the television show "America's First River, Bill Moyers on the Hudson. Boyle worked with the Metropolitan Museum of Art as the Assistant Director of a film, "American Paradise, the World of the Hudson River School" and from 1988 to 2001 was Vice-President of Godel & Co. Fine Art in New York where he bought, sold and wrote about the artists of the Hudson River School, American marine painting, and American Impressionism.

The following is from Peter Jung, Hudson, New York:

Found this (below) while surfing Google on Internet.......

Alexander Lawrie (1828-1917) was born in New York City, studied at the National Academy of Design there, then went abroad to study under Emanuel Leutze in Dusseldorf, Francois Picot in Paris, and Greek and Italian painters in Florence, Italy.

He opened a studio in Philadelphia to exhibit his portraits, landscapes, and genre subjects, served in Pennsylvania volunteer units in the Civil War, then returned to New York to appear annually in the National Academy's exhibitions.

His portrait of General George B. McClellan, reproduced from the collections of the West Point Museum, United States Military Academy, was probably painted in this highly productive period of his career.

Following the Civil War, Alexander Lawrie had a studio from 1866 to 1877 in New York City. By 1896, he was living in Chalmers, Indiana, and in 1902 was admitted to the Indiana State Soldiers' Home at Lafayette, Indiana.

During his later years, he painted a series of 158 portraits of Civil War Generals. His work is at the Indiana State House and at West Point.

Source:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art