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Lot Essay
In 1956 Seago's friendship with H.R.H. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, led to a unique opportunity when the Duke invited Seago to accompany him on a tour of Antarctica on H.M.Y. Britannia. Apart from the self-taught artist Edward Wilson (1872-1912), who perished in Antarctica on the fateful 1912 Scott expedition, no painter had tried to capture the unique topography of the remote continent; so, to all intents and purposes, this would be a first.
The journey began in Melbourne in December 1956, where Prince Philip had recently opened the Olympic Games, travelling via New Zealand before heading east towards the various islands that made up the Falklands Dependencies Survey. Seago was fascinated by the colours and shapes that he saw, and painted almost constantly in the 24 hour daylight of the Antarctic summer, working at rapid speed as the ship, as well as the icebergs and whaling boats they passed, was continually in motion. Seago recalled his surprise at the incredible colour of the icebergs: 'They glowed with the most rich luminous blues and greens which were tremendously exciting to paint.'
Established in 1909, the whaling station at Leith Harbour in South Georgia, was, in its heyday, one of the busiest whaling stations in the world, employing up to 500 men. It is perhaps best known to history as the place to which Ernest Shackleton, his first officer Thomas Crean and their team walked in 1916 after their epic escape from Antarctica. However, by 1957, when Seago painted this dramatic record of the harbour, its days were already numbered, and it was finally abandoned in 1965.
The majority of the series of over fifty paintings that Seago produced on the voyage were presented to Prince Philip, and now form part of the Royal Collection in Balmoral. Through them, the artist captured a sense of the eeriness, and serenity, of the remote continent and collectively they stand as a useful historical record, in an era of global warming, of the landscape of Antarctica in the middle of the 20th Century.
The journey began in Melbourne in December 1956, where Prince Philip had recently opened the Olympic Games, travelling via New Zealand before heading east towards the various islands that made up the Falklands Dependencies Survey. Seago was fascinated by the colours and shapes that he saw, and painted almost constantly in the 24 hour daylight of the Antarctic summer, working at rapid speed as the ship, as well as the icebergs and whaling boats they passed, was continually in motion. Seago recalled his surprise at the incredible colour of the icebergs: 'They glowed with the most rich luminous blues and greens which were tremendously exciting to paint.'
Established in 1909, the whaling station at Leith Harbour in South Georgia, was, in its heyday, one of the busiest whaling stations in the world, employing up to 500 men. It is perhaps best known to history as the place to which Ernest Shackleton, his first officer Thomas Crean and their team walked in 1916 after their epic escape from Antarctica. However, by 1957, when Seago painted this dramatic record of the harbour, its days were already numbered, and it was finally abandoned in 1965.
The majority of the series of over fifty paintings that Seago produced on the voyage were presented to Prince Philip, and now form part of the Royal Collection in Balmoral. Through them, the artist captured a sense of the eeriness, and serenity, of the remote continent and collectively they stand as a useful historical record, in an era of global warming, of the landscape of Antarctica in the middle of the 20th Century.