A canal in Chioggia

Edward Seago (1910-1974)

A canal in Chioggia

c.1950-60

Pencil and watercolour

39.4 x 56.9 cm

Presented by the artist

Edward Seago first came into contact with members of the royal family in around 1945, when he painted an informal portrait of Princess Margaret ; two years later, in 1947, he painted the wedding procession of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh. Seago, who lived in Norfolk, quickly became a friend of Queen Elizabeth and visited her at Sandringham every January and July, when the royal family were in residence. In 1953 Seago painted HM The Queen’s Coronation procession, and the following year he painted her riding at the Birthday Parade. When Prince Philip was planning his world tour on the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1956, he asked Seago to travel with him for part of the journey, from Melbourne to Antarctica, where the artist would have the rare chance of painting seascapes from the remote South Atlantic. Seago produced around sixty oil paintings during the voyage - the low temperatures precluded the use of watercolour, which would have frozen - which he gave to Prince Philip.

Every year Seago presented a painting or a watercolour to Queen Elizabeth on her birthday, 4 August, and another at Christmas. Personal gifts such as these are mainly undocumented, and the backs of the picture frames bear no inscriptions, so it is not possible to establish the order in which they were given. The watercolour of Chioggia, an island to the south of Venice between the lagoon and the open sea, probably dates from the 1950s when, attracted by the extraordinary quality of light, Seago made frequent visits to the area. In December 1966 he wrote to Queen Elizabeth offering her a Venetian scene as a Christmas present: ‘I wondered if at this time of year, in grey London, you might like to look at sunlit Venice - not a usual view, but something bright and cheerful.’

Seago presented a copy of his 1952 book Edward Seago. Painter in the English Tradition to Queen Elizabeth, with the inscription ‘You have taken a precious interest in this book, and allowed me to speak of it when it was first planned; and I have looked forward so much to the day when I could ask you to honour me by accepting a copy.’

Signed lower left Edward Seago; inscribed on verso upper left 345; centre A CANAL IN CHIOGGIA; lower right 25

RCIN 453250

Catalogue entry adapted from Watercolours and Drawings from the Collection of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, London, 2005