Samuel Laurence (also spelled Lawrence; born in 1812 - died in 1884) was a British portrait painter. Laurence's first exhibition was in London at the Society of British Artists, in 1834. In 1836 he sent three portraits to the Royal Academy. Early in life he became closely associated with the Victorian men of literature, and he drew and painted most of the writers and intellectuals of his day many times. Laurence hosted his own literary circle in the 1840s, the Bohemian Phalanstery, which involved eminent journalist Thornton Leigh Hunt. Laurence ceased to exhibit at Suffolk Street in 1853, but his works continued to appear regularly at the Royal Academy until 1882.
Laurence undertook a chalk portrait of Charles Darwin in 1853.
He made a portrait of Charles Dickens- as a young boy- in 1838