The youngest son of William Lawson of Edinburgh, a well-regarded portrait painter, and of a mother also known for her flower pieces, he was born in Fountain Place in Wellington, Shropshire.

Two of his brothers (one of them, Malcolm, a clever musician and songwriter) were trained as artists, and Cecil was from childhood devoted to art with the intensity of a serious nature.

"[2] Lawson's first works were studies of fruit, flowers, etc., in the manner of William Henry Hunt; followed by riverside Chelsea subjects.

In 1871 he contributed Summer Showers to a mixed charity exhibition held in support of those affected by the Franco-Prussian War.

[3] Lawson's Chelsea pictures had been painted in rather sombre tones; in A Hymn to Spring (1871–72; Santa Barbara Museum of Art) which was rejected by the Academy, he turned to a more colourful approach, helped by work done in North Wales and Ireland.

Early in 1874 he made a short tour in the Netherlands, Belgium and Paris; and in the summer he painted the Kent countryside in his large The Hop-Gardens of England (1874; Tate, London).