Portrait of John Carrol

The first of several studies of the asthmatic actor, John Carol, were exhibited by Seago in the Medici Galleries in 1939. Seago had painted Carol in his role as Oswald, the tragic son in Ibsen's Ghosts. Infatuated by his glamorous life-style and the intellectual stage persona, Seago invited Carol to live at the Moat Cottage whilst recuperating from an asthma attack during the war. Carol soon bored of Norfolk and Seago's solicitous care and moved back to London after only a few months. (See J. Goodman, The Other Side of the Canvas, London, 1978, pp. 148, 173-4)