Walking with the Ancestors - Cecil Lawson

Cheyne Walk

In 1870, Cecil Lawson's family moved to Carlton House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where he refined his talent for creating the intense and vibrant landscapes for which he would soon become more widely recognised. The exclusive riverside address formed the backdrop for Cheyne Walk (1870), Lawson's first exhibit at the Royal Academy, while two further submissions, The River in Rain and A Summer Evening at Cheyne Walk (1871) gained further recognition from fellow-artists. Buoyed by his initial success, Lawson made preparations for a more ambitious work that eventually came to be regarded as his first masterpiece. A Hymn to Spring (1872) was composed near Hungerford, Berkshire and based on an illustration entitled Spring that Lawson had previously submitted to the art magazine Deep Blue in 1871. Edmund Gosse commented that Lawson had nearly 'excited himself into illness' over a picture that 'astounded his contemporaries' on its completion.

Although his work was very much within the English landscape tradition of Constable and Gainsborough, Lawson's use of almost abstract compositional techniques proved too much for the previously appreciative Academy who instantly rejected the piece, serving only to make Lawson even more determined to develop his intensely rich and naturalistic style. In 1874, he travelled extensively in Europe but, rather than proving to be a source of inspiration, the trip appears only to have furthered Lawson's desire to paint the English landscape on his own terms.