(1849 - 1882)
Cecil Gordon Lawson, landscape painter, was born at Fountain Place, Shropshire, the son of portraitist William Lawson. His siblings included musician and composer Malcolm and illustrator Francis Wilfrid. The family moved to London when Cecil was ten and lived in Holborn and then Chelsea. Lawson learnt to paint watching his father and was also self taught. He made illustrations between 1870 and 1873, including a design for the magazine ‘Dark Blue’. He exhibited at the Royal Academy but, frustrated by how his work was received there, also showed work as the Deschamps’ and Grosvenor Gallery. He married flower painter Constance Philip and the couple moved to Haslemere in Surrey, where he died at the age of just 30.
