Edward Seago (1910-1974)

Seago made his only visit to Hong Kong in 1962 at the invitation of John Kidston Swire, the artist's patron, and Chairman of the parent company of the Far Eastern Trading and Shipping Group, whose Hong Kong manager wanted six pictures for a new boardroom. The company paid Seago's expenses and he refunded them in paintings. While appalled at the poverty that he sometimes encountered, Seago found Hong Kong to be a rich source of inspiration, and the trip generated eighty paintings and watercolours.