Bybrook

Apart from a very brief spell at a local art school as a child, Seago was largely self-taught. Restricted by ill-health to his Norfolk surroundings and influenced by the work of Sir John Alfred Arnesby Brown, Bertram Priestman and Sir Alfred James Munnings, he naturally turned to rural subject matters; landscapes and horses. The present work, dated 1937, is one of the equine portrait commissions that Seago received as a young artist. It was these early commissions which helped to build his reputation, at first locally, and increasingly to a wider audience.

Bybrook was a chestnut filly of 1924 by Sky-rocket out of Pilot's Wife by Argosy. She ran nine times as a two-year old, the only time she was ever placed was on 22 June when she won a selling plate at Folkestone worth £147, in fact the race was a dead heat. At the time she belonged to Lady Gold and was ridden by Henry Leach for the well-known rainer Felix Leach, to whom Henry was apprenticed. After the race the filly was bought by Mrs J.A. Keith for 310 guineas. She ran four times as a three-year-old, still for Mrs Keith and remained with Felix Leach.