Son of the artist, Thomas Lawranson. He worked in London in the latter part of the eighteenth century, chiefly as a portrait painter in crayons. Lawranson first exhibited with the Incorporated Society in 1762, sending a portrait. In 1763 and 1764 he sent portraits to the Free Society of Artists, but in 1766 returned to the Incorporated Society and continued to exhibit there till 1772. He sent mostly crayon portraits, including in 1771 one of William Smith the actor as Iachimo, which he engraved himself in mezzotint, and in 1769 one of Sophia Baddeley. From 1774 till 1780 he exhibited at the Royal Academy Many of Lawranson's pictures were engraved, including: Ann Catley as "Euphrosyne", by Robert Dunkarton; Signora Giovanna Sestini, the opera singer, by John Jones; Benjamin West by William Pether; Sir Eyre Coote by J. Walker; and A Lady Haymaking, Palemon and Lavinia, Rosalind and Celia, Cymon and Iphigenia by John Raphael Smith.
