Henry Dawson's (1811-1878) formal training as a painter was limited to twelve lessons from the landscape painter James Baker Pyne (1800-1870) in June 1838. Despite this, he enjoyed some early success in Nottingham, the city where he lived for most of his early life.

Dawson began to exhibit landscapes in London, at the Royal Academy from 1838 and the British Institution from 1841. In 1844 he moved to Liverpool and exhibited at the Liverpool Academy, becoming an associate in 1846 and a full member the following year. It was while he was in Liverpool that he started to produce the marine images which would become a staple of his out-put throughout his career.

In 1850 Dawson moved south, living in Croyden, Chertsey and Camberwell before settling in Chiswick. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy but had more success at the British Institution where he showed several key works such as The Wooden Walls of England and The New Houses of Parliament, Westminster. In July 1878 he was honoured by a retrospective exhibition of fifty-seven of his paintings to mark the opening of the Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery.