Cecil Lawson: A Memoir

1883
Not on view
Lawson's untimely death cut short the promising career of a talented painter and watercolorist, a member of the Idyllists. The Fine Art Society published this lavish publication in an edition of 200, bound in white vellum with gold-tooled lettering, and brought out in 1883 just a year after his death. The illustrations included prints by Whistler and Herkomer. The latter was a close friend of Lawson who admired (and collected) his work, and the two often sketched together in the late 1870s. Herkomer's etched frontispiece was based upon his watercolor portrait of Lawson that the artist had affectionately dedicated to him—the inscription reads "To my friend"—and was presented by Lawson's son to the National Portrait Gallery, London in 1953.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Cecil Lawson: A Memoir
  • Author: Sir Edmund William Gosse (British, Hackney, Middlesex 1849–1928 London)
  • Subject of book: Cecil Gordon Lawson (British, Wellington, Shropshire 1849–1882 London)
  • Artist: After Cecil Gordon Lawson (British, Wellington, Shropshire 1849–1882 London)
  • Sitter: Cecil Gordon Lawson (British, Wellington, Shropshire 1849–1882 London)
  • Illustrator: Sir Hubert von Herkomer (British, Waal, Bavaria 1849–1914 Budleigh Salterton, Devon)
  • Illustrator: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
  • Publisher: The Fine Art Society, London
  • Printer: J. S. Virtue & Co.
  • Date: 1883
  • Medium: Illustrations: etching, woodcut
  • Dimensions: 19 3/16 x 15 3/16 x 13/16 in. (48.7 x 38.5 x 2cm)
  • Classification: Books
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
  • Object Number: 17.3.2983
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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