Eric was educated in New York at Columbia College, at the Art Students League and privately. He has participated in numerous group shows over the past 20 years in public and private exhibition spaces and galleries. Most recently, he was included in a select group to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Edward Hopper House: "Realist Painting After Edward Hopper" and, through June of 1999, his work was on exhibit at the James Michener Museum in Doylestown. Pa. He has also shown in six one person shows in New York, the last being at Helio Galleries.

Articles about his work and reviews of exhibitions have appeared in national art magazines and other publications. The critic Gary Indiana, writing in the Village Voice described his work as "lyrical, yes, and genuinely moving." Frederick Ted Castle in a review of an exhibition of cityscapes in Art in America: "It is wonderful to see a real painter looking at the city and recreating its beauty for our jaded palates." "Sparre takes the moment of vision and sustains it" (ARTnews). The Philadelphia Inquirer described his paintings as "compelling in their simplicity of form and reassuring in their insistence on their universality....they resonate."