According to The Holland Park Circle: Artists and Victorian Society, William Rawlinson was a silk mercer living in Hill Lodge on the south side of Campden Square in 1880. He was a partner in James Pearsall & Company (silk merchants) and worked with Thomas Wardle of Leek to reintroduce old methods of dyeing silk using natural dyes from the East. He became a distinguished Turner expert, building up an unrivalled collection of drawings and engraved work. He collected blue and white Chinese porcelain and owned Whistler's Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Battersea Reach.
He commissioned William Blake Richmond to paint a portrait of him, his wife, their son Hugh and their daughter Mary.