Albany Fine Art : Biography of Edward SEAGO

Edward SEAGO RBA, RWS

British, 1910-1974

Edward Seago at work

He epitomised commercial artistic success for over half a century: his annual exhibitions were invariably sell-outs, with queues stretching all along Bond Street - and buyers limited to the purchase of a single picture

A painter of landscapes, skyscapes, marine and floral subjects in oils and watercolours in an Impressionist style, Seago is one of Britain's admired, respected, finest, and most widely collected artists of the 20th Century.

Born Edward Brian Seago in Norwich in 1910, the son of a coal merchant, his parents initially tried to persuade him to abandon any idea of becoming a painter in favour of a career in business. At the age of seven, he developed an acute heart complaint which often confined him to bed and interrupted his schooling at South Lodge Preparatory School in Lowestoft and then at Norwich Grammar School. As a result, he spent much time painting scenes from his bedroom window. A self-taught artist, he received little encouragement to pursue art from his parents, though he did receive advice from Sir Alfred Munnings, PRA, (British, 1878-1959) and some instruction from Bertram Priestman, RA (British, 1868-1951). At the age of 14, he won a special prize from the Royal Drawing Society and from that time his future career was decided.

Like Sir Alfred Munnings and Dame Laura Knight (British, 1877-1970), Seago was attracted to the drama and glamour of the circus and joined Bevin’s Travelling Show when he was 18. He spent much of his early youth touring Britain and the Continent. He related his experiences in his books Circus Company (1933) and Sons of Sawdust (1934), the latter telling of circus life in the West of Ireland. During this period, he also created some 42 paintings to accompany John Masefield’s collection of poems in The Country Scene (1936) and he worked with Masefield again in the following year on Tribute to the Ballet (1937) and A Generation Risen (1942). He held his first one-man show at the Sporting Gallery in 1933.

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, he joined the Royal Engineers, despite his poor health. He was invalided out in 1944 but was invited to Italy by Field Marshal Alexander (subsequently Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis) as an unofficial war artist of the Italian Campaign. They often painted together and Seago discovered the charm of landscape painting.

The subject matter in the first half of his career extends from his experiences on the road to portraiture, sporting subjects and ballet scenes. After the Second World War he concentrated more on landscapes and street scenes, subsequently travelling to France, Spain, Morocco, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong and Antarctica, yet always returning to his beloved East Anglia.

Seago was involved in the publication of a number of illustrated books throughout his career. He published Peace in War (1943), High Endeavour (1944), With the Allied Armies in Italy (1945), and his autobiography A Canvas to Cover (1947). He held his first solo exhibition in London in 1944 and two years later exhibited his war paintings which give a narrative account of the Italian campaign. This exhibition at the Colnaghi Gallery in London generated such acclaim that he was invited to exhibit there every year for the following 20 years. His annual exhibitions of oils and watercolours attracted so many potential buyers, who would queue all along Bond Street for hours before the gallery opened, that Colnaghi’s had to ration each prospective buyer to one painting each. His exhibitions at home and abroad always sold out within days, sometimes within minutes of opening. Seago also exhibited at Marlborough Fine Art and other prestigious galleries around the world.

After the war, Seago settled in The Dutch House at Ludham on the Norfolk Broads to paint. Here he enjoyed the peace and serenity of the flat atmospheric countryside of his youth and its proximity to the sea. A keen traveller and sailor, Seago would regularly sail his boat Capricorn across the Channel to Holland, Belgium and, particularly, France, where he would travel up the Seine from Honfleur to Paris, painting as he went. He recorded these adventures in With Capricorn to Paris (1956). He eventually sold Capricorn in 1968 and purchased Ca Conca, a villa in the elegant yachting resort of Porto Cervo on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, which he would visit for a painting holiday every year.

Seago was a prolific exhibitor at The Royal Academy, Royal Watercolour Society, Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Western Academy, and internationally at the Paris Salon, in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Oslo and Brussels. He was elected a Member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1946, Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1957 and a Member of the RWS in 1959.

For half a century Seago epitomised commercial artistic success. His exhibitions were invariably sell-outs, he was widely travelled and was a firm favourite of several generations of the Royal Family: he painted portraits of King George VI and HM Queen Elizabeth and acted as artistic adviser to several princes; he was appointed an Official Artist of the Coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1953; he accompanied HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on a round-the-world tour on the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1956 and in 1957 held an exhibition in St. James’s Palace of the pictures painted on this world tour; HRH The Prince of Wales was a frequent visitor to his home in Norfolk; and he was the close friend of the generals, playwrights and actors of his day. He died in 1974.

In his autobiography, A Canvas to Cover, Seago declared “Atmosphere and light, to my mind there is more magic in those two words than in all the others in the English language. They signify to me all that is grand and beautiful in landscape. They embody form and colour, space and substance. I cannot imagine landscape without atmosphere and light.”

His biographer, James Reid, said, "While Seago's subject matter evolved within a fundamentally traditional genre, his methodology, style and technique contributed to an innovative interpretation of the rural, urban and marine scene". His "innovative interpretation" relied on a beautifully fluid and refreshing use of paint. His work is recognisably spontaneous - a moment captured in oil or watercolour, retaining the essential mood of the occasion, whether vibrant or reflective.