Charles Warren Eaton - Early Career

Early Career

Eaton's entrance into the art world coincided with a profound change in the prevailing artistic style in America. In the late 1870s the highly realistic and detailed Hudson River School manner, which had dominated the American art scene for over forty years, was giving way to a much looser, moodier style that younger artists were bringing home from Europe. This new style, which would later come to be known as tonalism, emphasized low-key colors and tended to depict intimate settings rather than scenes of grandeur. Eaton adopted this new style in New York and became friends with two other tonalist artists, Leonard Ochtman and Ben Foster.

By the early 1880s Eaton began to earn professional recognition along with his first sales. He exhibited his first two paintings at the National Academy of Design in 1882, and continued to exhibit there regularly for the rest of his career. His paintings at the 1884 exhibition brought favorable notice from The New York Times. He also exhibited with the newly formed Society of American Artists in 1884 with an uncharacteristic still-life (Eaton painted landscapes nearly exclusively). By 1886 he quit his day job and devoted all of his time to art.

Eaton held the work of Robert Swain Gifford in particularly high regard, as well as that of George Inness. Eaton and Inness worked in the same building in New York in 1889, and Inness stopped to admire Eaton's landscapes outside his studio. He called on Eaton the next day and purchased a painting, and the two became friends. Eaton however, who had already established himself as a successful artist, was more of an admirer of Inness than a follower.