David Laurent de Lara

David Laurent de Lara ( in Amsterdam – 1876) was a London-based, Dutch-born limner of Spanish descent. He has been described as a pioneer who helped illumination to become recognised as an artform in its own right at a time when very few had ready access to the original illuminated manuscripts or to fine quality reproductions. His illuminated Hebrew calendar and almanac, and a portrait of Hananel De Castro, 1840-1 president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, led to his being greatly admired among London's Jewish community.

Beckwith has argued that while Laurent de Lara was a good self-promoter, he was not skilled at his art, and suggests that it was him who J. Willis Brooks called an "unprincipled adventurer" who exploited impoverished female illuminators. In 1857 Laurent de Lara had established the Illuminating Art Society. and The Athenaeum, though any subsequent shows appear to not have been reviewed.

Beckwith notes that by the 1860s, Laurent de Lara's manual had competition in the form of other, more successfully developed publications by Winsor & Newton, George Rowney & Company, and J. Barnard and Son; and says he failed to grasp the idea that illumination was about a unity between text and ornament.

According to his granddaughter, the pianist and composer Adelina de Lara's autobiography, David Laurent de Lara was the son of a Spanish count called Laurent de Lara.