Allen W. Seaby

Allen William Seaby (1867-1953) is best known as an ornithological painter and printmaker, and Professor of Fine Art at the University of Reading. He was the author of several art books for students and also wrote and illustrated books for children.

Allen W. Seaby was a student at Reading School of Art under Frank Morley Fletcher, where he developed a lifelong passion for colour woodblock printing in the Japanese style. Published on a range of subjects, including art history and technique as well as children's literature, Seaby taught fine art at the University of Reading for many years, eventually becoming a professor and head of department. 

Seaby's illustrations are well known to post-war British children through his watercolours for two Ladybird books on British birds by Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald: British Birds and their Nests (1953) and A Second Book of British Birds and their Nests (1954). Seaby was the main illustrator for F. B. Kirkman & F. C. R. Jourdain's book 'British Birds' from 1938. He is the grandfather of noted wildlife illustrator and printmaker, Robert Gillmor.

Seaby wrote and illustrated six fiction titles about native ponies in their habitats between 1923 and 1948. Skewbald, New Forest Pony (1923); Sons of Skewbald (1937); Exmoor Lass (1928); The Dartmoor Pony (1935); Sheltie, The Story of a Shetland Pony (1939) and The Welsh Pony (1948).

In addition to bird illustrations and pony books, Seaby also produced several historical books for children, which demonstrate an underlying interest in archaeology, art history and landscape, as well as ponies. Omrig and Nerla (1934), for example, is set in the Bronze Age, and the novel opens with what is for Seaby quite familiar territory: herd behaviour, a challenge from a lone stallion and the birth of a foal.

For students, Seaby produced a series on art history, Art in the Life of Mankind (1928 onwards), and practical technique books relating to the art of the woodcut, for which he is most well-known.   Seaby's Japanese-style woodblock print of Stonehenge is particularly striking.