Charles Harold Davis was one of the most renowned American landscapes painters of his generation, receiving major awards, gallery representation, and being the subject of numerous solo exhibitions during his lifetime. Early on, Davis was inspired by Barbizon artist Jean-François Millet, and traveled to Paris in 1880 to pursue a career in landscape painting.

The present work, Evening, was a major early painting by Davis that helped to establish his reputation. Depicting a flat plain in subdued colors, a lone leafless tree stands at the right, with a winding brook in the foreground. The landscape was first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1886, where it was purchased by American philanthropist and banker, George I. Seney, who donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1887. Davis returned to the United States in 1890, and settled in Mystic, Connecticut where he spent the remainder of his life.