Edward Seago, RWS, RBA

(British, 1910-1974)

The Yacht Basin, Ostend

Footnotes

Provenance
H. T. Percival Collection, UK (gifted by the artist in 1956).
Thence by descent.

The present lot, painted at Ostend in 1950, has been in the same private collection since it was gifted to Seago's friend and sailing companion H. T. 'Perci' Percival. A newspaper clipping titled 'Broads craft cruising in Dutch waters' spoke of Percival and Seago, noting 'Last week Mr. H.T. Percival assisted Mr. Edward Seago with Capricorn across to the Hook....and thus three boats from Horning are cruising Dutch waterways this week...Broadland is well represented across the water'.

Accompanying the lot are three books by Seago, two of them inscribed by him: 'To Perci/With gratitude from the 'master' of Capricorn/April 1956' and 'To 'Percy'/To mark the crossing!/With best wishes/From Ted/September 1949'. The books are as follows: Edward Seago, High Endeavours, Collins, 28 Pall Mall London, 1944; Edward Seago, Timeline – the Ebb and Flow of Memory and Experience, Collins, St James Place London, 1948; and Edward Seago, With Capricorn to Paris, Collins, St James Place London, 1956. There is also a Christmas Card from 'Ted and Peter' addressed to the original owners of the present lot.

Seago was extremely fond of his second boat Capricorn, named for the month of December when she was registered, 'seeking further information about those born under Capricorn I learn that they are headstrong and of brave heart. My Capricorn is both of these'.¹ In the present lot, Capricorn's green hull is identifiable, although the colour was problematic for Seago. He would paint Capricorn every year, and the blue-green mixed was never quite the same shade. 'Last year, I remember, when we were painting Capricorn, it seemed that we were coating her in a sickly shade of khaki, and it dried as a pale blue. Also the hull takes on so many reflected lights from the water that it becomes extremely difficult to tell the exact shade of the paint'.²

Seago, beyond his beloved Norfolk, had a yearning for the light and landscape of other destinations which his boat and companions enabled, '...my desire to depict light and atmosphere in landscape has led me to other surroundings'. In particular he notes being drawn to Italy, France, Portugal and 'the quieter greys of Holland'.<sup>3

1</sup> Edward Seago, With Capricorn to Paris, London, 1956, p. 15.
² Seago, 1956, p. 19.
³ Seago, 1956, p. 11.