Frederick Judd Waugh

Frederick Judd Waugh studied at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are marine. Work by Frederick Judd Waugh is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian American Art Museum and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

• Name — Frederick Judd Waugh • Born — September 13, 1861 • Birthplace — Bordentown, New Jersey • Died — September 10, 1940

• Illustration — 'The Knight of the Holy Grail' • Illustration — 'Jersey City at Sunset' • Illustration — "The Next Wave" • Illustration — "Still Life"

In 1918, Waugh was recommended to serve as a camouflage artist (or camoufleur) for the U.S. Navy, as a member of the Design Section of its marine camouflage unit. That section was located in Washington, D.C., and was headed by American painter Everett L. Warner. According to a biography of Waugh, “Many large ships, including the Leviathan, were painted according to his designs. Though the enterprise was of course a team effort in which no man played a solo part, he had every reason to be proud of his record. Only one ship with his system of camouflage was lost during the war”.

• Illustration — Roaring Forties by Frederick Judd Waugh, currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Waugh was known to produce literary work, publishing a short poem in Pamela Colman Smith’s short-lived periodical The Green Sheaf; a fairy tale in The English Illustrated Magazine; and, in 1916, the book The Clan of Munes. Intended as a work of American folklore aimed at children, the book lays out the fictional history and adventures of the “Munes, or tribe of American Fairies”, creatures Waugh regarded as a “gift to his fellow countrymen”. He reported that the idea for these driftwood-based fairies had come to him two summers previously when painting at Monhegan, Maine. Together with his non-marine artworks, these pieces reflect Waugh’s lifelong interest in fairy lore and the supernatural. In an interview with New York City paper The Sun (4 November 1916, p. 9), he asserted that he “dreamed dreams and saw visions—real ones”, and described his history of writing fairy tales, along with his regret at burning the stories he had written while in London.