Frederick Judd Waugh's prodigious output is defined by his achievements as a marine painter. The expressive and realistic effects of Waugh's paintings were the result of Waugh's exhaustive study of light, shadow, and motion of waves breaking on rocky shores. 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 much stature as a marine painter, garnering a strong popular and commercial following during his lifetime.

Waugh outlined his outlook and working methods in several essays and manuscripts, stating that "it [the sea] is a pliable element and the wind and rocks and sands heave it up and twist it and turn it, pretty much the same way every time, until the observer learns to know the repeated forms he sees, and becomes at last so familiar with them that they can be painted from memory ... I spend part of each summer studying the sea ... and what I learn from it then, lasts me until the next time." Frederick Judd Waugh was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1911.

He worked with both watercolors and oils in a plein-air style applying heavy impasto brushstrokes on the canvas. The colors were often applied directly out of the tubes without prior mixing. This technique added to the freshness of Waugh's paintings making the waves look bright and wet and creating a quality of light in his seascapes that are luminous. He was born in Bordentown, New Jersey to parents who were both artists. His father was a portrait and landscape painter and his mother a miniaturist. Despite this background, it was only with difficulty that he persuaded his parents to allow him to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. There he studied under Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz. He continued his studies in Europe with Adolphe William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Academie Julien in Paris.

For 15 years Waugh remained in England working as an illustrator for various London papers and magazines. Waugh's early work consisted of figurative compositions, which were conventional and decorative. He first began painting the sea while in England and this theme soon began to dominate his work. Later, in St. Ives, Cornwall, Waugh shared a studio with Hayley Lever (1876-1958). He undoubtedly would have come across painters from the popular artists’ colony in Newlyn, near Penzance. These painters, attracted by the rugged beauty of the Cornish coast painted en plein-air as did Waugh. With reputation established, Waugh returned to America in 1907, and settled in Provincetown, Massachusetts where he remained, except for brief excursions, for the remainder of his life. His work is represented in a number of public museums and private collections.

Cut off from the outside world, he began his profound study of the color and form of waves and of the great laws that control the waters. Waugh’s friend, A. Seaton Schmidt, wrote in the February 1914 issue of The International Studio, that "Waugh reveled in the buffeting winds and storm tossed seas, wiping the salty spray from his eyes and painting on until the light was completely gone."

EXHIBITIONS National Academy of Design, 1884, 1886, 1891, 1907-1941, prizes ‘10, ‘29, ‘35. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1881-1913. Royal Academy, London, 1899-1906. Buenos Aires Exposition, 1910 gold medal. Boston Arts Club, prize. Art institute of Chicago, 1912 medal. Connecticut Academy of Fine Art, 1915 prize. Panama-Pacific Exposition, 1915 medal. Philadelphia Arts Club, 1924 gold medal. Carnegie International Exhibition of Paintings, Popular Prize 1934-1939.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Bristol Academy, England City Art Museum, St. Louis Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England