Edward Seago

Edward Brian Seago, RBA, ARWS, RWS (31 March 1910 – 19 January 1974) was an English artist who painted in oils and watercolours.

Early life The son of a coal merchant, Seago was born in Norwich and attended Norwich School. He was a self-taught artist (although he received advice from Sir Alfred Munnings and Bertram Priestman) and enjoyed a wide range of admirers from the British royal family and the Aga Khan to the general public. His works have been classified as either Impressionist or Post-Impressionist and included landscapes, seascapes, skyscapes, street scenes, portraits and his garden.

When aged 14, Seago won an award from the Royal Drawing Society, and from then on knew what he wanted to do in spite of his parents' initial disapproval. At the age of 18, he joined Bevin's Travelling Show, and he subsequently toured with circuses in Britain and throughout Europe.

In 1937, Seago gave evidence to a police enquiry into a blackmail gang in London's West End who exploited laws against homosexuality. His statement revealed that he had had a friendship with a young man in late 1936 who used a fake name and extracted money from Seago by deception.

In 1939, "A Rabbit Skin Cap" by Lilias Rider Haggard was published, with the front cover and all other illustrations by Seago.

Wartime camoufleur

Heart problems, identified at the age of seven, dogged him all of his life. He had to resort to subterfuge to join the army at the outbreak of the Second World War. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 3 December 1939, with the Army number 110235 and was employed on developing camouflage techniques for Field Marshal Auchinleck, with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

Later career

His popularity was such that those who wished to buy one of his paintings had to queue (with the single exception of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) at his various annual exhibitions around the world.

"The Queen Mother bought so many that eventually the artist, who died in 1974, gave her two a year – on her birthday and at Christmas. Prince Philip invited him on a tour of the Antarctic in 1956, and his subsequent paintings, considered to be among his best, hang at Balmoral."

Seago created a solid silver sculpture of St George slaying the Dragon, which serves as an automobile mascot for any state limousine in which the monarch travels. The mascot can be transferred from car to car. When the monarch is not aboard, it is substituted with the symbol of the manufacturer, such as the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy or the Bentley "B".

Seago settled in East Anglia with Peter Seymour, his lover and studio assistant, who was also an artist.

Legacy Seago died of a brain tumour in London on 19 January 1974. In his will he requested that one-third of his paintings currently in his Norwich studio were to be destroyed. There remain about 19,000 water colours and 300 oil paintings worldwide. A major retrospective of his work was held in autumn 2008 in London, as was a Sky Arts 2 television series about Seago fronted by Selina Scott.

To mark fifty years since Seago's death, the Portland Gallery held a sales exhibition of his oils, watercolours and drawings on 12th-28th June 2024.