L.A. Ring was born as Laurits Andersen in a village named Ring in southern Zealand in 1854. His parents were wheelmaker and carpenter Anders Olsen and Johanne Andersdatter. In 1873 while working in Copenhagen, he decided to take classes in painting, and after two years studies at the Techical School in Copenhagen he was accepted at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1875 and studied for two years, including briefly along side fellow painter P. S. Krøyer. Yet he was never content with the academy and disliked the strict training in classical disciplines.

     In 1881 he and his friend, the painter Hans Andersen from the village of Brændekilde decided to change their last names, taking the names of their native villages in order to avoid confusion at their joint exhibition. Laurits became L. A. Ring, and his friend Hans became H. A. Brendekilde.

     He made his debut at Charlottenborg in 1882 and continued to exhibit there until 1928. He gained his first recognition in 1884, the year he painted "Banevogteren" (The Railroad Guard). He also received a gold medal at the Dresden Exhibition of 1897 and another gold medal in Munich in 1901. In Paris he received Honorable Mention of his work submitted at the Salon of 1889 and a bronze medal for his work in the Paris Salon of 1900.

     Like many of his contemporaries, Ring traveled widely. Between 1893 and 1895 he embarked on a tour of Europe visiting Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and Italy, and returning to Italy in the early years of the twentieth century.

     In 1894 Ring was characterized in the novel Nattevagt (Night watch) by his friend the Danish author, and later Nobel prize winner, Henrik Pontoppidan. Ring served as a model for the unflattering character Thorkild Drehling, a painter and failed revolutionary. In the novel the character is in love with the wife of the other main character Jørgen Hallager. Ring was alarmed by the possibility that this could be read as an allusion to his real hopeless love for the wife of his friend Alexander Wilde. His portrail in the novel damaged the two mens' relationship and was never repaired.

     Upon his return from Italy, he started working on a series of paintings with fellow painter Sigrid Kähler as his model. In 1896 Ring married Kähler and they had three children. In 1900, he received the bronze medal at the World's Fair in Paris for his painting of her, "In the Garden Doorway, the Artist's Wife" (I Havedøren, 1887).

     By 1913 Ring was a notable member of Denmark's artistic community and a judge at the Charlottenborg exhibitions. He became one of the foremost Danish painters of the turn of the 20th century, who pioneered both symbolism and social realism in Denmark. Ring drew on the Danish tradition of almue (folk) art, such as the work of J. Th. Lundbye, but he also incorporated influences from more modernist painters such Paul Gauguin, Jean François Raffaëlli and Jean-François Millet.

Over his career Ring participated in many international exhibitions including in Paris, Berlin, Chicago, London, Rome, Venice, New York, Brooklyn, Washington D.C., Minneapolis, and Oslo.

     As a painter, Ring never distanced himself from his humble origin, but rather made it his dominant theme, depicting the reality of rural life. This style was described as "anti-naturalism.”  Ring's consistent engagement with the unpleasant realities of life caused one critic to dub him, "the Apostle of the Hideous". Others have interpreted the drive towards unsentimental realism as an expression of Ring's atheist life stance. Ring himself quipped on his 40th birthday that, "Life is short, art is long."

     The year after Ring's death, the author Peter Hertz published a biography in which he summarized Ring's life and work: "His oeuvre remains as his life and essence: The still water of profound depth".

     Ring was awarded the Eckersberg Medal in 1901 and the Thorvaldsen' Medal in 1906. In 2019 The National Nordic Museum in Seattle held the first major retrospective exhibition in the US on the artist.

     The artist is represented in these public institutions:

• National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design in Oslo

• The National Museum in Stockholm

• The National Gallery of Denmark (SMK)

• The Finnish National Gallery

• The Bruce Museum of Arts and Science in Connecticut

• AROS - Aarhus Art Museum

• BRANDTS - (Painting) Museum of Art & Visual Culture

• The Hirschsprung Collection

• Fuglsang Art Museum

• Greve Museum

• Horsens Art Museum

• Kroppedal Museum

• ARTS Museum of Modern Art Aalborg

• Museum Sønderjylland (Kunstmuseet i Tønder)

• New Carlsberg Glyptotek

• Randers Art Museum

• Ribe Art Museum

• Roskilde Museum

• Rudersdal Museums

• Sorø Art Museum

• Vejen Art Museum

• Vejlemuseerne (The Guide Museums of Art)