Frederick Judd Waugh's prodigious output is defined by his achievements as a marine painter. Breakers at Floodtide is an accomplished, ambitious seascape, painted shortly after his return from Europe. The expressive and realistic effects were the result of Waugh's exhaustive study of light, shadow, and motion of waves breaking on rocky shores. As he wrote, "one should not conflict actualities in nature with artistic representation.... It is impossible to paint the sea in literal movement or to carry to the nostrils the tang of the salt sea brine, yet all these are somehow felt in a work of art. Being able to present such feeling is where the artist should excel." By adhering to this philosophy, Waugh attained great stature as a marine painter, garnering a strong popular and commercial following during his lifetime.
Born in Bordentown, New Jersey, Waugh's father was Samuel Bell Waugh, the noted portrait painter. From 1880 to 1883, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins and Thomas Anshutz, and in 1883, enrolled in the Acad6mie Julian, Paris. However, it was a visit in 1893 to the Island of Sark, off the French coast, that proved to be a decisive turn. Waugh remained for two years, studying the rocky shoreline, making notes, sketches, and studies. He traveled to St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1895, where he continued intensive analysis of the seascape subject. Waugh left England for the United States in 1907, in an effort to establish his reputation as a marine painter on his native continent.
Breakers at Floodtide shows an assured virtuosity in paint application, rendering, and composition. Works of this period are characterized by vigorous brushwork and a rich surface texture created by the building up of layers of impasto. Waugh outlined his outlook and working methods in several essays and manuscripts, stating that "it [the sea] is a pliable element and the wind and rocks and sands heave it up and twist it and turn it, pretty much the same way every time, until the observer learns to know the repeated forms he sees, and becomes at last so familiar with them that they can be painted from memory ... I spend part of each summer studying the sea ... and what I learn from it then, lasts me until the next time." Breakers at Floodtide is likely taken from studies executed in the summer of 1908 or 1909 at Bailey Island, Maine. Waugh's studies done during these summer visits were later worked into finished compositions, enlarged or integrated into composite views upon returning to his studio.

Waugh exhibited Breakers at Floodtide in the 1916 Spring Annual at The Detroit Institute of Arts. Joseph G. Butler, Jr. purchased the work, and later, his grandson noted that "this picture is a great popular favorite at the Museum.... I consider it one of the finest Waughs I have ever seen." Breakers at Floodtide is a fine example of the painter's style, typical of the period, and executed in a controlled manner with more detail evident than in his later works. His passionate exploration of this subject resulted in a singular ability to capture the aura and movement of the tumultuous waves and the generalized sensation and atmosphere of the sea, establishing Waugh as one of America's foremost marine painters.