Edward Seago RWS RBA
1910-1974

East Anglia has never lacked for artists ever since the young John Constable took up his brushes, inspired by the paintings of Ruisdael and Hobbema. Holland was a short distance by boat and many of the Norfolk and Suffolk gentry had purchased works by these masters and brought them home. In the 19th century Cotman and Crome founded the Norwich School and the East Anglian painters were a powerful lobby. Then came Sir Alfred Munnings, a contemporary of Edward Seago but some thirty-five years his senior. So it is apparent that a young artist who chose to live and paint in that area, whilst surrounded by great art, also had chosen a place to make his name against some pretty stiff competition.

Edward Seago was the son of a Norwich coal merchant who recognized his son’s abilities and was able to send him to the Royal Drawing Society. At the tender age of 14 Seago won an award for his drawing, which brought him to the attention of Bernard Priestman, who gave him a few lessons. But in the main, Seago had to plough the lonely furrow of being self taught, but there was the East Anglian landscape to inspire him, as it had for his illustrious predecessors.

Since the time of John Constable, the landscape had changed radically in form. Gone were the tiny fields surrounded by tall imposing elms; what was still apparent were the low horizons and the massive, imposing skies. These, Seago recognized, would form the foundation of his subjects, and his ability to render and reproduce the vastness of space on his canvas caught the public imagination. Light reflected on water drew him to Pin Mill and the towering masts of the wherries, with their tan sails, gave his subjects a natural vertical scale to contrast with the luminosity of the East Anglian sky.

But, loved and sought after as these subjects are, they are only a part of the vast range of subjects that interested, fascinated and inspired Edward Seago. Early in the 1930s, along with Sir Alfred Munnings and Dame Laura Knight, Seago became involved in recording the romance and drama of the circus. He travelled to Ireland to pursue this interest and in 1934 he published ‘Sons of Sawdust’ which recorded life in the circuses that travelled around the west of Ireland.

In World War II Seago served with the Royal Engineers and often painted in Italy and North Africa with Field Marshall Lord Alexander. He found time to publish ‘Peace in War’ (1943) ‘High Endeavour’ (1944), ‘With the Allied Armies in Italy’ (1945) and his autobiography ‘A Canvas to Cover’ in 1947.

His works were exhibited in the USA, mainly on the East Coast, frequently at the Royal Academy, the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal West of England Academy and the Paris Salon. There must still be many of his admirers who recall his early shows at Colnaghi’s in Old Bond Street (1960s) when queues of would-be buyers stretched back along the street and around the corner to Old Burlington Street.

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