Seago - The Marsh Track, Winter, Norfolk

this moody evocation of the norfolk
landscape in winter captures edward seago in his element. the
impressionistic feel and tonality of the work are striking; it is
the familiarity of the scene, however, that is most captivating.
seago grew up in norfolk and spent most of his working life
there, continually using his native countryside as inspiration for his
paintings. his affection for the county is revealed in the intimacy and
informality of The Marsh Track; Winter - Norfolk.
an overcast sky, hastily conveyed with a minimum of paint through
which brush strokes are clearly evident, hangs oppressively over the stark
landscape. to the right and left are fields covered in crisp white snow
and undisturbed by passers-by. a muddy track, its texture conveyed by
a liberal application of blotches and squiggles of grey, blue, black and
edward seago, The Haystack, norwich castle (figure 1)
EDWARD SEAGO
(Norwich 1910 - London 1974)
The Marsh Track; Winter - Norfolk
signed ‘edward seago’ (lower left)
oil on board
50.8 x 76.2 cm (20 x 30 in)
Provenance: with the Pieter Wenning Gallery, Johannesburg, south africa;
with marlborough fine art, london.
brown pigment, leads the eye towards the lower centre of the composition,
where a thatched barn and a dense grouping of trees form a horizontal
line across the panel.
despite his restricted colour palette, seago’s depiction of contrasting
surfaces, from the glossy flatness of the river to the roughness of the
grasses growing along its bank, delineated by sharp vertical scratches,
brings variation and interest to the representation.
seago’s The Haystack, in the collection of norwich castle, portrays
a similarly flat expansive landscape, although blue skies and hints of
green foliage indicate the change of season (fig. 1). again, the view down
a country track directs the eye towards a large haystack interrupting
the continuity of the low horizon, and next to it, a gnarled tree. the
looseness and freedom of seago’s impressionist style, like in The Marsh
Track; Winter - Norfolk is at its most apparent.
seago was ill for much of his childhood and as a result, he spent
many hours sketching the surrounding countryside from his bedroom
window. these formative years made him determined to pursue a career
as an artist, against his parent’s wishes.
at the outbreak of World War ii, seago joined the royal engineers,
and was immediately invited by field marshal alexander to record the
italian campaign. he met churchill, macmillan and George vi, among
other prominent figures, all of whom later became his patrons. his war
paintings, exhibited at colnaghi’s in 1945, were a huge success and
attracted hoards of viewers. after the war, seago turned his concentration
from portrait to landscape painting. in the following years he painted
largely from life, until 1962, when, on one of his many trips abroad, he
began making sketches with colour annotations, which he later worked
up in the studio. this significant change in method was brought about
by a desire not to be viewed merely as a topographical painter. as The
Marsh Track; Winter - Norfolk shows, seago achieved much more than an
accurate likeness of his subject; he imbued the landscape with atmosphere
and emotional force.