Edward Seago, R.W.S. 1910-1974

Edward Seago visited Hong Kong in 1962 on the invitation of John Kidston Swire, chairman of a trading and shipping company who wanted to commission paintings to hang in his boardroom. Most of the pictures painted by Seago in Hong Kong were watercolours, like the present picture, upon which he later based oils painted in his studio at Ludham. 'Hong Kong, like so many of the places where Edward Seago painted, has lost some of its charm in the three decades since his 1962 visit. In those days, a host of rickshaws awaited passengers taking the legendary Star Ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong... However, the junks, sampans and houseboats that constitute the marvellously motley assortment of water-craft that Seago recorded, on waters of intense metallic blue offset by brittle viridian shadows, are still very much in evidence in his favourite painting grounds.' (James W. Reid, Edward Seago: The Landscape Art, 1991, p. 229)

In Hong Kong Seago was particularly inspired by the harbour at Aberdeen on the soutH-west side of the island. It was here that he painted the Tanka boat people in their Junks and Sampans 'those seemingly ponderous, antediluvian hulks of picturesque configuration and richly textured, sometimes tattered sails.' (ibid Reid, p.229)