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Lot Essay
Seago painted 'An Upland Road' when on leave from military service during the Second World War. He served with the Royal Engineers under the command of Field-Marshal Lord Alexander, and was frequently stationed in Italy, where he found time to paint. Seago's artistic disposition had taken hold at an early age when, confined to bed due to illness, he had entertained himself by depicting scenes from his window. During leave he was equally disinclined to merely rest and undertook a series of pictures portraying the rural way of life, which must have seemed a reassuring constant amidst the uncertainties of war.
Nevertheless, the present picture evolved from Seago's imagination rather than from life. He describes its manisfestation in terms of inspiration taking literal shape on his white canvas:
'Always I have seen the image, clear and spontaneous, and always the result is a laboured ghost of what I saw...This time I knew so exactly what it was that I wanted to paint. I could see it all so clearly; it was impossible that I should not transfer it exactly as it was.
It was a picture of Romanies, with a blue-painted wagon, plodding uphill at sunrise. A picture of free people, travelling their chosen road at the start of another day.
Quickly, in broad masses, they began to take shape. The silhouette of the wagon stood out against a luminous sky. Figures at horses began to suggest themselves in a surge of upward movement. Yes! that was how I saw it in my mind'.
Like many artists, Seago felt this moment of creative exhilaration pass as the picture entered its second stages but recorded that: 'There was faults certainly...but it was something I was pleased to have done; and God, how happy I'd been while I did it' (Peace in War, pp. 20-21).
We are grateful to John Erle Drax for his help in the preparation of this catalogue entry.
Nevertheless, the present picture evolved from Seago's imagination rather than from life. He describes its manisfestation in terms of inspiration taking literal shape on his white canvas:
'Always I have seen the image, clear and spontaneous, and always the result is a laboured ghost of what I saw...This time I knew so exactly what it was that I wanted to paint. I could see it all so clearly; it was impossible that I should not transfer it exactly as it was.
It was a picture of Romanies, with a blue-painted wagon, plodding uphill at sunrise. A picture of free people, travelling their chosen road at the start of another day.
Quickly, in broad masses, they began to take shape. The silhouette of the wagon stood out against a luminous sky. Figures at horses began to suggest themselves in a surge of upward movement. Yes! that was how I saw it in my mind'.
Like many artists, Seago felt this moment of creative exhilaration pass as the picture entered its second stages but recorded that: 'There was faults certainly...but it was something I was pleased to have done; and God, how happy I'd been while I did it' (Peace in War, pp. 20-21).
We are grateful to John Erle Drax for his help in the preparation of this catalogue entry.