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.

Of his childhood, it is written that Jacob Lazarus was quite impoverished, but that later he "became wealthy through his brush." At his eulogy of the Academy upon his death in 1891, his general success was recognized and also his low profile in his later years---he was "rarely seen among his brother Artists, but . . . kindly remembered for his many amiable traits of character." (352)

Source:

David B. Dearinger, "Jacob Hart Lazarus", Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design, 1826-1925

Biography via AskArt.com