Lawrence Macdonald (d.1878) was born in Perthshire and began carving in stone at an early age while serving his apprenticeship to a local mason. In 1822, Macdonald entered the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh and later in the same year established himself in Rome, becoming one of the founder members of the British Academy of Arts in that city. Apart from a further period of six years spent in Edinburgh from 1826 to 1832, he was to remain in Rome for the greater part of his working life.
Exhibiting at the Royal Academy between the years 1828 and 1857 and at other prominent British exhibitions, the larger part of his oeuvre comprises busts and statues of the most eminent of his contemporaries.