Alexander Lauréus
Finnish, 1783 – 1823
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Aleksander Lauréus, also Alexander Lauraeus, was a Finnish painter.
Lauréus was born in Turku to Lovisa Ulrika and Alexander Laureus, a Doctor of Theology, and was named after his paternal grandfather.
Lauréus was 11 years old when he started school in Turku Cathedral School and graduated from high school in 1800. At that time he was interested in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's books. He studied at the drawing school in Turku, probably 1800–1802, when the teacher was Johan Erik Hedberg. In 1802 Laureus Turku Province Baron Olof Vibeliuksen lead a fundraising that raised 195 krones for a scholarship for Lauréus to attend the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm to study.
Lauréus painted his father and stepmother's portraits. He left Finland when it was annexed from Russia in 1809 and it became the Grand Duchy of Finland. He became a royal court painter in 1811, and a became a member of the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki in 1812, and he worked for some time as a teacher at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm. In 1817 he was awarded a three-year scholarship to travel, so he left in September with his wife, Margaret to Paris. The trip took three months. In Paris, he studied at Pierre-Narcisse Guérin's studio from 1817 to 1820. In 1820 they traveled to Italy and Rome.
