Charles Harold Davis, a native of Amesbury, Massachusetts, studied for two years at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, spent a decade in France, and moved to the Connecticut shoreline town of Mystic in the early 1890s. In Connecticut, Davis’s style shifted from one inspired by French Barbizon artists to Impressionism, and today is best known for his vibrant and highly energetic cloudscapes. Davis was successful and popular throughout his career, and while he rarely traveled outside of Mystic, his paintings appeared in museums and major exhibitions in the United States and abroad. In 1903, he was elected an academician of the National Academy and was an active member until his death three decades later.

The critic Royal Cortissoz, in reviewing a memorial exhibition at Macbeth Gallery in New York City, placed Davis among the ranks of “true American originals,” such as George Inness (1825–1894), John Henry Twachtman (1853–1902), Childe Hassam (1859–1935), and Julian Alden Weir (1852–1919 (1).

1. New York Herald Tribune, April, 1934.