Charles Davis

(American, 1856–1933)

Born in Amesbury, Massachusetts, Charles Davis was a leading Tonalist and later Impressionist painter, best known for his landscapes and cloudscapes. After early work in a carriage factory, he studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and then in France at the Académie Julian, living for ten years near Barbizon where he absorbed the Tonalist style. His early works depicted subtle changes of light from dawn to sunset, reflecting the influence of the Barbizon School.

In 1891, Davis returned to the United States and settled in Mystic, Connecticut, where he founded the Mystic Art Colony in 1892. His style evolved into Impressionism, characterized by brilliant cloud-filled skies and vivid color contrasts that captured the fleeting effects of light.

He exhibited widely, including at the Paris Salon, the Chicago Art Institute, the National Academy of Design, the Armory Show of 1913, and the Pan-Pacific Exposition in 1915.

Davis continued painting in Mystic throughout his life. He married twice, including to his student Francis Darby, and willed his library of over 800 art reference books to the public library in Westerly, Rhode Island. His work remains celebrated for its quiet beauty, atmospheric sensitivity, and contribution to American Impressionism.