A painter of portraits, figures, genre and history subjects, Jacob Lazarus also did miniatures. He appears to have spent his entire career in New York City where he studied portraiture with Henry Inman and attended the school of the National Academy of Design*.

In 1850, he was elected to Associate membership of the Academy, and from 1841 to 1865, he was a regular exhibitor at Academy annual exhibitions. Other exhibition venues were the Pennsylvania Academy*, Brooklyn Art Association* and Boston Atheneum.