The son of unsuccessful gold seeking California pioneers, Lorenzo's parents later moved to Santa Rosa. His father was an attorney and his mother died soon after the move when he was six. He grew up among the vineyards of Windsor, and after his father became a Superior Court judge, he moved to San Francisco at age 12. (Read more below the photos.)

As a young artist, he became friends and drinking companion of the famed Jules Tavernier. This relationship, although instructive in his artistic career, did have some drawbacks due to the drinking, limiting Lorenzo's productive output. But he moved beyond these problems, and found success and fulfillment instructing young artists in the distant country of the North Bay. Among his students were Sonoma County residents Grace Allison Griffith, Bertha Luce Emory and Elizabeth Hoen. In the earthquake of 1906, Latimer lost many of his works as did most San Francisco artists. He relocated to Berkeley where he maintained a residence until his death in 1941 at the age of 85. Source: Askart