Along the Ridge. 12"x16".
oil on board.

This is the Spartanburg view of Tryon Peak, Warrior Mountain and Round Mountain which includes Howard Gap. Howard Gap is where I-26 now cuts through the mountains at Columbus, and was the difficult section of I-26 that took about 20 years to complete.

The other side of Howard Gap.
12"x16".
oil on panel

Wooded landscape.
9"x12". oil on panel.

Autumn in Tryon.
oil on canvas

Lawrence's illustration for the cover of a 1914 novel called "Sandy"
by S.R. Crockett

Robert Pearson Lawrence '58

(1883-1970)
Active in Guild 1958

EDUCATION:

  • Pratt Institute, Brooklyn,

  • Art Students League in NYC

  • in Woodstock under Birge Harrison, John F. Carlson, Herman Dudley Murphy, Howard Pyle, and Harry Reuterdahl.

ART RELATED :

  • (1914) He illustrated for Woman's Home Companion, the old Life Magazine, and did a frontispiece for a 1914 novel called "Sandy" by S.R. Crockett.

  • (1934) He joined the Salmagundi Club in NYC as an artist member.

  • perhaps illustrated the following book:
    SHANGRI-LA FOR WOUNDED SOLDIERS: THE GREENBRIER AS A WORLD WAR II ARMY HOSPITAL. By Louis E. Keefer (Reston, VA: COTU Publishing, 1995. Pp. 321. $19.95.)

  • In 1952 he came to Tryon which he called “a painter’s paradise.” He taught art and painted the area prolifically. For 15 years Lawrence was considered one of Tryon’s top professional artists, and contributed nationally to its artistic reputation by the high quality of his landscapes.
    - Michael McCue -

  • (1/18/1959) - 6th annual exhibition at the Episcopal Church. "Mr. Lawrence has painted and exhbited for many years and has taught private and group classes in landscape and portrait work here and in Spartanburg. Mr. Lawrence said he finds this section a 'source of constant inspiration and a field of endless variety.'"

  • (1/30/1961) AGS Newsletter - "Mr. Bob Lawrence, one of our former members, is holding a one man exhibition in the Parish House of the Episcopal Church, Tryon, N.C...Mr. Lawrence is an outstanding Western North Carolina artist, and is widely known for his landscapes."

  • Professionally he practiced in oil painting and illustration, exhibiting at Westchester Arts & Crafts, Hudson Valley Art Assoc.

  • Lawrence constructed many of his frames.

ORIGIN:

  • He was born 1883 in Setauket – which is a town on the North Shore of Long Island, near Stony Brook, NY.

  • Active in the Tryon area from 1952 to 1967

  • He died in an Episcopal retirement home in Morristown, NJ on July 21, 1970

PERSONAL:

  • He sometimes went by "R. Pearson Lawrence"

  • He served in the Army infantry for 15 months. That could have been World War I or another war.

  • Although Lawrence was only in the guild for one year (1958), he seems to have remained on good terms with the guild and its members, continuing to mail announcements of exhibitions. He probably dropped out of the guild because of the combination of his age (he would have been 75), the distance from Tryon and the fact that that section of the interstate had not been completed.