Southall was born in Nottingham of Quaker parents, and was taken by his mother to Birmingham when his father died in 1862. In 1874 he entered the Friends’ School, Bootham, where he was taught painting by Edwin Moore (brother of Albert and Henry). Four years later he joined the Birmingham firm of architects, Martin and Chamberlain, but in 1882 he left to focus on painting and joined the Birmingham School of Art settling in Edgbaston, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Southall and his wife Anna paid frequent visits to Italy and France.