Edward Wadsworth was a British painter from 1889-1949 who was inspired by his service in the Royal Navy during World War I. He created paintings featuring juxtapositions of natural and man-made forms within sea-shore contexts, such as ships next to rocks, which had a surreal quality. Over his career, Wadsworth developed his style to incorporate more abstraction and large scale compositions while continuing to explore the relationships between nature and human creations.

1. Edward Wadsworth
(1889 – 1949)
Year 11.
“Sea-shore Juxtapositions”

2. Edward Wadsworth, British painter.
Edward Wadsworth served
in the Royal Navy
during World War One.
www.wikiart.org

3. The “dazzle” experiments inspired his
early work.
Battleship in “dazzle” camouflage, World War I In Dry Dock, Liverpool (1919)
www.theguardian.com www.wikiart.org

4. The sea, ships and man-made forms
also inspired his art.
Composition (1940) www.wikiart.org

5. Surrealism and the sea-shore.
The Beached Margin (1937) www.tate.org.uk

6. Comparisons of natural and man-made
forms.
The Arrival (1936)
www.pictify.com

7. Natural and man-made juxtapositions.
Wings of the Morning (1928 – 29) www.unirioja.es

8. Developed into abstraction …
Dahlia (1940) www.wikiart.org

9. and large-scale compositions.
The De La Warr Pavilion
Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex,
England.
www.intoxicatingprose.com

10. Wadsworth’s Art.
Edward Wadsworth did not consider himself to
be a Surrealist artist but his juxtapositions of
natural and man-made forms within the
context of the sea-shore did often lead to
strange and “surreal” compositions. His
interest in developing the forms within his
paintings led him towards abstraction, where
the origins of the forms are partly disguised.