Charles Sprague Pearce was born in 1851 to a wealthy Bostonian family. His father, a successful Chinese importer, immersed his young son in a setting that gave him a great appreciation for the arts. His grandfather, Charles Sprague, was a well-known early American poet. Young Pearce was schooled at the prestigious Boston Latin School where he showed his first signs of artistic talent. After completing school, he worked for a short time in his father's business before deciding he wanted to pursue a career as an artist, leaving for Paris in 1873.

Upon arrival in Paris, Pearce enrolled in the atelier of Léon Bonnat, a leading academic painter who had his own atelier for students. Bonnat was known for his genre scenes, history paintings, and portraits. Pearce's earliest works show the strong influence of his of his instructor, Bonnat, especially in the modeling of his subjects.

In 1873 Pearce and Frederic Arthur Bridgman, also from Bonnat's atelier, left for Egypt, spending three months traveling down the Nile, immersing themselves in a culture that was unfamiliar to their own and making a wealth of drawings. This was only the first of many exotic trips Pearce would make, as many of the Orientalist paintings in the Salon shows of Paris had inspired artists with their exotic dress, landscapes and customs. The very next year, Pearce left Paris once again, this time traveling to Algeria where he spent the winter months absorbing the life and culture of yet another foreign country, further adding to his repertoire of Oriental themes.

Pearce made his Salon debut in 1876. Despite his new experiences in other countries, he chose to enter a portrait and not a work inspired by his travels. By the next Salon, in 1877, Pearce had turned towards depicting historical biblical scenes, most likely under the influence of Bonnat but managed to integrate some eastern details. Although biblical themes were no longer a popular or progressive subject, Pearce's biblical history was not surprising since from youth he had wanted to be a great religious painter.

Pearce continued to exhibit biblical subjects at the Salons but his interest in Orientalism and the exotic grew stronger as the current rage of Japonisme, and the love of everything Japanese attracted more and more artists. Pearce's contemporaries began collecting oriental objects and using them to create a European type of Oriental painting. By 1883, Pearce began to exhibit works with an Oriental overtone, heightening his artistic powers, winning him universal attention and making a turning point in his career.

Another theme Charles Pearce took on was peasants. They had a long enduring history, not only in the works of other great artists but also in France's social history. His paintings of peasants would win him medals in the Salon shows of Paris, as well as, the shows back in America.

Pearce moved to the countryside of Auvers-sur Oise where he would surround himself creatively with nature and live for the rest of his life. In the late 1880s he continued his interest in peasant themes while also integrating pastoral paintings into his oeuvre. He remained a consistent yearly exhibitor at the Salon and many other shows around the world.

He served on the jury of the Exposition Universelle of 1889, and involved himself in a number of activities that furthered his recognition, including chairing the Paris advisory committee for the World' Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the Paris Committee for the Louisiana purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. He also helped organize the first large scale American art exhibition in Belgium for the 1894 Antwerp World's Fair. He was also named a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1894.

Charles Sprague Pearce died in 1914 at his home in Auvers-sur-Olise but his unique blend of the exotic and the popular led him to become an exceptional, sought after artist in both Europe and America, perpetuating an interest in Orientalist aesthetics, as well as, showing newer styles and iconography.

Knitting in the Fields 1892 Oil on canvas Private Collection	Sainte-Geneviève 1887 Oil on canvas Private Collection	Paul Wayland Bartlett 1890 Oil on canvas Private Collection

Death of the First Born 1877 Oil on canvas Private Collection	Evening 1888 Oil on canvas Public collection