Edward Seago, RWS, RBA, (British, 1910-1974)

The arrival of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in the Royal Yacht Britannia at the Pool of London, 15 May 1954

The arrival of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh in the Royal Yacht Britannia at the Pool of London, 15 May 1954
signed 'Edward Seago' (lower left)
oil on canvas
46 x 61cm (18 1/8 x 24in).

Provenance
The Fine Art Society, London, November 1965.
Gifted to the father of the present owner, 1978.
Private collection, UK.

Literature
James Reid, Edward Seago, The Landscape Art, London, 1991, p. 35 (illustrated in colour pl. 32).

The crowning of Princess Elizabeth as Queen of England in June 1953 provided an unparalleled opportunity for Edward Seago to indulge his taste for pageantry as an artistic theme... He used the occasion to good effect... he produced a group of oils and watercolours which captured to perfection the festive mood. They are lively, exciting pictures, with bold interjections of colour... Another visit to London the next year produced a striking work entitled Royal Yacht Britannia arriving at the Port of London, 15 May 1954 [sic] with the Port of London Authority yacht St. Katherine in the foreground. It is a pageant of flags, the highlight a Union Jack billowing bravely in the foreground while river traffic fills the middle area and crane silhouettes dot the horizon.

(James Reid, Edward Seago, The Landscape Art, London, 1991, p.153)

In service as the Royal Yacht to Queen Elizabeth II from 1954 until 1997, Britannia was launched by the Queen on 16 April 1953, and commissioned on 11 January 1954. Her maiden voyage was from Portsmouth to Malta, before taking Princess Anne and Prince Charles to meet the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in Tobruk, Libya. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh first embarked on Britannia in Tobruk on 1 May 1954, a voyage culminating in the scene depicted in the present lot.

In 1956, Britannia took The Duke of Edinburgh on a voyage from Melbourne, across the South Pacific, to the Falklands and Antarctica; Seago was one of the invited guests; as The Duke observed, 'As I had come to admire Ted Seago's Norfolk landscapes, I thought he might enjoy the chance to paint Antarctic scenery.'1

Britannia is now permanently berthed in Leigh, Edinburgh. Seago produced a second, larger version of this composition, which was exhibited with Richard Green, London, February 1999, no. 22.

1 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, forward to The Antarctic paintings of Edward Seago, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, 2006, p. ii.