Born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Charles Davis became one of the more recognized of the Tonalist and Impressionist painters in America. He was also the leading member of the colony of artists who gathered at Mystic, Connecticut. His early landscapes that gave him the reputation for Tonalism and that resulted from his visit to Barbizon, France, depicted every hour from dawn to sunset with a subtlety of form and color. However, in the mid 1890s, his style changed dramatically to Impressionism.

Davis did not set out to be an artist, and he had early employment in a carriage factory. However, after attending an exhibition featuring works by Jean Francois Millet, French Barbizon-School painter, he, with the encouragement of his father, en...