Edward Brian Seago, RWS, RBA (1910-1974)

The Embankment with Cleopatra’s Needle, Painted from the Savoy Hotel

Signed
Oil on Board
24 x 18 inches – 61 x 45.7 cms

Provenance: Given by the artist to Sir Noël Coward on the occasion of his 80th birthday, 1973;
Private Collection, UK
Exhibitions: London, Marlborough Fine Art, "Edward Seago, Paintings and Watercolours", 1972, No.26 Artist Biography: Edward Brian Seago was born in Norwich and studied with Bertram Priestman, RA (1868-1951), a landscape painter and fellow East Anglian artist. He also studied briefly at the Royal Drawing Society, although the majority of his painterly technique was self taught. Seago travelled widely, painting in Morocco, Greece, Italy, Spain and France. However, his paintings of East Anglia and London are amongst his finest. The current work depicts a view from a room at the Savoy Hotel, also famously painted by Claude Monet (1840-1926), looking down over the embankment. Cleopatra’s Needle, presented to the United Kingdom by Egypt in 1819, can be seen in the foreground, with Hungerford Bridge, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament silhouetted in the distance. The numerous street lamps and headlights of passing vehicles draw the viewer’s eye around the right edge of the painting and their reflections shimmer across the calm waters of the River Thames. This is an iconic London view painted by one of the country’s leading artists whose collectors have included Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret.

His works can be found in museums in: London, HM The Queen and National Portrait Gallery; Norwich; Southend and New Brunswick.