A large painting depicting waves breaking close to a shore. The wind blows the spray on the crest of the wave, which, as the title implies, is the purpose of the image. Seagulls hover overhead in the sky, which occupies the top third of the picture. The painting is taken from a low viewpoint that positions the spectator on the shoreline with the large wave approaching obliquely.

The artist was a London-based marine painter (b. 1860) who exhibited four works at the Royal Academy from London addresses in Dalston and Maida Vale between 1886 and 1897. 'David James' was a pseudonym, his real name being Joseph Donahue, the fourth child of a London porter and a probably Irish mother, whose talent attracted the attention of a German-born picture dealer, who supported his training and with whose family he lived for much of his life. His last known work is dated 1904 and he was most interested in pure studies of the sea, rather than topographical coastal views, and was particularly interested in painting waves. Much of his work, which still regularly appears at auction, was done on the coast of Cornwall. This painting, which the Museum purchased in 1976 as a good representative example, is signed and dated 1898.