Background
He was born on July 31, 1831 in Boston, Massachussets, United States, the son of E. Wood Perry of that city and Hannah (Dole) Perry of Newburyport.
He was born on July 31, 1831 in Boston, Massachussets, United States, the son of E. Wood Perry of that city and Hannah (Dole) Perry of Newburyport.
With his small capital he sailed for Germany, to study art under Emanuel Leutze, a well-known figure painter, and remained there for more than two years before going to Paris for a season in Couture's studio.
When he was seventeen he went to New Orleans, where he worked in a grocery store for four years, saving from his meager earnings $1100 - no slight achievement in a city presenting so many temptations to prodigality.
In 1856 he was appointed United States consul in Venice, and even though his duties at that post left him sufficient time to carry on his painting, he resigned in three years and returned to the United States, doing some landscapes around Philadelphia before joining his father who had become a furniture dealer in New Orleans.
Young Perry hired a studio on St. Charles Street and advertised himself as a portrait painter. He evidently met with success, and one of his best pictures, which now hangs in the Cabildo at New Orleans, is of Senator John Slidell. In January 1861 the Louisiana state legislature in session at Baton Rouge signed the ordinance of secession, and Perry made a preliminary sketch in oil of the proceeding which is now in the Cabildo. It contains likenesses of many of the most important of the legislators.
He also painted about this time a large portrait of Jefferson Davis standing before a map of the Confederate States. Perry went to California and for awhile he painted in San Francisco. In 1863 he was in Hawaii where he did portraits of King Kamehameha IV and his successor, Kamehameha V. When he returned to the United States he painted Brigham Young and other apostles of the Mormon Church, staying in Salt Lake City, Utah, until these commissions were finished.
He must have had great ability in salesmanship, for he always contrived to have for sitters the most important people in the cities where he happened to be. His portrait of General Grant was done when Grant was at the height of his military glory.
After he settled in New York in 1865, Perry acquired a reputation for his genre subjects. Some of their titles, such as "Good Doggie, " and "Is Huldy to Home? , " give an accurate idea of them.
He was most active on the National Academy of Design's school committee and served as its recording secretary from 1871 to 1873, a position he also filled for the American Art Union during its entire existence.
He died in New York.
Enoch Wood Perry Jr. was a popular painter in the United States in his time. He made portraits of many of the most important of the legislators, for example, portrait of Jefferson Davis, portrait of General Grant. He also acquired a reputation for his genre subjects: "Grandfather's Slippers", "Too Little to Smoke", they were painted with such fidelity to detail that they are still interesting as records of contemporary American interiors, costumes, household customs, and even crafts.
In 1868 he was elected a member of the National Academy of Design, and an Academician in the following year.
On February 4, 1899 he married Fanny F. Perry.
