David James – Atlantic Waves, North Coast Cornwall

Born in Ireland, with his real name ‘Joseph Donahue,’ the artist we know as David James was a British marine painter, active from 1872 onwards, who made a name for himself as an artist who almost exclusively painted marine landscapes, painting a number of superb works of the waves off the coast of Cornwall such as this.

Exhibiting at the Royal Academy on multiple occasions from 1886 to 1897, James gravitated towards depictions of the sea after time spent in Yorkshire, and crashing waves became a signature of his oeuvre. His mature works depict the sea off the South-west coast of England, in Cornwall and Scilly. Working in oil-on-canvas, he rendered the power of the ocean and the atmosphere of the southern coast with an unrivalled talent and skill.