Self Portrait

Although born in Hull, Dawson moved to Nottingham with his family when he was a child. There, he was apprenticed in the lace industry but briefly in 1838, took art lessons from J.B. Pyne (1800-1870). Dawson worked as an artist in both Liverpool and London. He exhibited at the Royal Academy where he showed mainly landscapes, coastal views and port scenes. He received official recognition relatively late in his career but was admired throughout by a number of his artistic contemporaries and patrons. This modest self portrait painted on an intimate scale, contrasts with the characteristic ambition of his maritime works but shows the same careful handling of paint and orchestration of tones.