Allen William Seaby (25 May 1867 – 28 July 1953)[2] Is best known as an ornithological painter and printmaker, and Professor of Fine Art at the University of Reading.
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.
These nature books paved the way for scores of minor Black Beautys, the best of which was Golden Gorse’s Moorland Mousie (1929), illustrated by the great sporting artist Lionel Edwards.
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.
Seaby's obituary in The Times (30 July 1953: 8) paid tribute above all to his ability to synthesise art and nature: his "studies of wildlife", the writer noted, are significant for the way in which "naturalistic truth is combined with decorative disposition", and "nobody could fail to be impressed by the illustrations in such books as Skewbald: The New Forest Pony; British Ponies; and The White Buck".
Pierre Gusman admired his woodcuts in the Japanese style, and compared him with John Dickson Batten, William Giles and Sydney Lee in that field.