Edward Wadsworth ARA (1889-1949) was an English artist initially associated with the Vorticism movement. In the First World War he was part of a team involved in the transfer of dazzle camouflage designs to ships for the Royal Navy. After the war his maritime landscapes and still-life compositions using tempera were infused with a surrealistic mood - although he never exhibited with the British surrealists. In the early thirties and in the early forties his work was mainly abstract. He made a significant contribution to the development of modern art in Britain in the inter-war years.

At first glance the scene seems realistic, but closer observation reveals a very unusual world. Wadsworth has assembled existing objects that do not harmonise and seem out of proportion. There is an extraordinary stillness and precision in this painting, created partly by his use of tempera, a water-based paint which can be applied in clear luminous patches with a minimal effect of brushmark. Although painting with such clarity was a technique also used by the Surrealists, Offing is without the eerie tension and shock of a true Surrealist painting and Wadsworth was not associated with the movement.