⊕ EDWARD SEAGO (BRITISH 1910-1974) Lot n° 38

A STREET OFF THE WALWORTH ROAD, LONDON signed Edward Seago lower left oil on board 54.5 x 80cm; 21 1/2 x 31 1/2in 68.5 x 94cm; 27 x 37in (framed) Provenance Colnaghi, London Aubry Easton, London (purchased from the above in the 1950s. Aubrey Easton was a senior partner of the family firm of solicitors William Easton & Sons whose offices were at Lion House, 124 Walworth Road, hence his interest in the present subject) By descent to the present owner, niece of the above For another view of the present street from a different vantage point further down the road by Seago see sale Bonhams, London 21st March 2017, lot 104. Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle, south of the Thames, was and remains the principal trading street in the area encompassing East Street Market, one of the oldest markets in London. The son of a coal merchant, Seago was born and raised in Norfolk, where he painted local views as a boy. After leaving school he ran away to join Bevan's Travelling Show publishing the sketches and oils he completed of the performers and circus characters in Circus Company, Life on the Road in 1932. The introduction to the book was written by the poet laureate John Masefield who went on to commission Seago to illustrate two volumes of his poetry: The Country Scene (1937) and Tribute to Ballet (1939). As well as Masefield, Seago acquired several other influential patrons during the 1930s. One was Henry Mond, 2nd Lord Melchet who invited Seago to Venice and commissioned him to paint a series of portraits of his family. Another was Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, whose patronage brought Seago to the attention of the Royal Family. After the Second World War Seago settled in Ludham on the Norfolk Broads, where he purchased the picturesque, seventeenth century Dutch House. There he focused on painting atmospheric views of the surrounding countryside, evoking the region's distinctive flat landscape and vast skies, punctuated by windmills, churches and marshland farmhouses. Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles, Prince of Wales at the time, all became devotees of his work, and his exhibitions with his dealer Colnaghi sold out immediately. Typically collectors queued around the block to acquire a painting, the gallery having to limit purchases to one each, a rule not dissimilar to those imposed by leading fashion brands today selling their merchandise to eager buyers on Bond Street.