James Harris was born in Swansea, the son of a picture framer. In the 1850s he moved to the Mumbles, Swansea Bay, and later to the village of Reynoldston, on the Gower peninsula, where he died. Harris specialised in pictures of shipping, often, as in the present painting, in rough waters. A similar painting can be found in Swansea Museum (SM 1927.100). A portrait of Harris by Joseph Mayer (1803–1886) is in the Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Birkenhead (BIKM:4566).