On the Tagus, Portugal

Seago first visited Portugal in 1953. The stately four-masted schooners or 'bacalhoeiros' became a theme in his Portuguese subjects: 'It is partly my love of sailing ships which draws me to Portugal in the early spring. In the yellow-grey waters of the Tagus there assembles a fleet of four-masted schooners ... manned by weather-beaten Portuguese fishermen clad in the check shirts of Nazaré. Where else in the world can you see, not one, but a couple of dozen ships ready to put to sea?' (see J. Reid, Edward Seago The Landscape Art, London, 1991, p. 213).