Metropolitan Cathedral of Our Lady of Monterrey, Mexico

This is the only known example of an oil painting by Charles from the eight-month period he spent living in Mexico, without Catherine and Lucia. During the difficult years of the Great Depression, Charles struggled to find architectural work in America, and sought fresh perspective across the southern border. The painting depicts an arched doorway into the Metropolitan Cathedral in Monterrey, Nuevo León, with figures kneeling before the grand entrance. Charles assembled these worshippers out of bright dabs of color that recall the fractured brilliance of a composition in stained glass. The doorway appears drenched in light. When Charles returned to St. Louis, he gave this painting to his mother, then living in the home of his sister and brother-in-law, where it hung for many years. It was eventually passed to Charles’s goddaughter and niece, Adele Marie Crispin, who also cherished it. When asked why she gave it a place of honor above her fireplace, a friend asked “Is it because it was by Charlie?” Adele replied, “No, because it’s such a good painting.”

The painting is signed “C.O. Eames ’34” in the lower left corner.