Frederick Judd Waugh

Born in Bordentown, New Jersey, Waugh's father was Samuel Bell Waugh, the noted portrait painter. From 1880 to 1883, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz, and in 1883, enrolled in the Academie Julian, Paris. However, it was a visit in 1893 to the Island of Sark, off the French coast, that proved to be a decisive turn. Waugh remained for two years, studying the rocky shoreline, making notes, sketches, and studies. He traveled to St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1895, where he continued intensive analysis of the seascape subject. Waugh left England for the United States in 1907, in an effort to establish his reputation as a marine painter on his native continent.As he wrote, "one should not conflict actualities in nature with artistic representation.... It is impossible to paint the sea in literal movement or to carry to the nostrils the tang of the salt sea brine, yet all these are somehow felt in a work of art. Being able to present such feeling is where the artist should excel." By adhering to this philosophy, Waugh attained great stature as a marine painter, garnering a strong popular and commercial following during his lifetime.