Lorenz Frølich entered the world on the 25th of October 1820 within a wealthy bourgeois family in Copenhagen. The family owned the building at Store Kongensgade 81 where they lived on the first floor.
He received formal instructions in drawing from Martinus Rørbye starting in 1833. Later he studied under Christen Købke, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Eduard Julius Bendemann, and Thomas Couture.
Frølich created French albums with Pierre-Jules Hetzel featuring his daughter Edma as a favorite model when she was a baby and child. Eight stories illustrated by him reside in the Baldwin Library at the University of Florida today.
Major public commissions included tapestries based on Nordic mythology for Copenhagen City Hall. Danish painter and tapestry artist Dagmar Olrik spent eighteen years decorating a room there using designs from cartoons by Frølich.
Carl Nielsen composed a work titled CNW 103 for Frølich's eightieth birthday celebration. The event took place in Koncertpalæet, Copenhagen on the 30th of November 1900.