1831 - 1915
Although he spent his childhood in New England, Enoch Wood Perry moved to New Orleans as a teenager. There he worked as a clerk for several years in order to earn money for study in Europe. Perry left the United States in 1852, spending several years under Emanuel Leutze in Düsseldorf (1852-54) and Thomas Couture in Paris (1854-56). After a few months in Rome, the young artist moved to Venice, where his father's intervention had resulted in his appointment as U.S. consul.
Back in the States by 1858, Perry opened a studio in Philadelphia; two years later, he was back in New Orleans. He made his living through portraiture and the painting of Confederate subjects. Soon he embarked on a portrait-painting tour through the southern and western states, arriving in California by 1862. While living in San Francisco, Perry took trips to the Yosemite Valley with Albert Bierstadt and Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1863) and to Hawaii (1864). He then traveled to New York via Salt Lake City to take over the lease of Bierstadt's studio in the Tenth Street Building.
Soon after arriving in New York in 1866, Perry's rural genre pictures secured his election as an Associate and Academician at the National Academy. From the beginning, he became the Academy's most active liberal voice, frequently clashing with conservatives such as Eastman Johnson, Jervis McEntee, and Worthington Whittredge. The initial controversy was a long and bitter debate over the method of conducting the Academy's schools. Perry advocated charging tuition and merging with the Cooper Union to ensure competent, salaried instructors. As recording secretary between 1871 and 1873, he worked with William Page toward this end. Although conservative plotting defeated his bid for the Council in 1875, he was elected by the 1877-8 season, when he finally prevailed on the tuition issue. (He served on the Council again from 1882 to 1885 and as corresponding secretary in 1895-6.) Other causes for which he was a spokesman were opening the NAD galleries on Sundays (he succeeded), barring glass on pictures hung in Annuals (with the help of Winslow Homer, he succeeded), and purchasing a 57th Street site for the new Academy building in 1897 (he failed).
In addition to his Academy activities, Perry kept up an active schedule of travel. He returned to Europe in 1873-4 and spent an additional three years in California beginning in 1878. It was during a trip to Sandwich, NH that he met Fanny F. Hering, whom he married in 1899 at the age of 68. They spent their summers in Sandwich thereafter. Before his death, Perry made gifts to the Academy of photographs, prints, and a copy he executed of a Madonna by Titian.
Back in the States by 1858, Perry opened a studio in Philadelphia; two years later, he was back in New Orleans. He made his living through portraiture and the painting of Confederate subjects. Soon he embarked on a portrait-painting tour through the southern and western states, arriving in California by 1862. While living in San Francisco, Perry took trips to the Yosemite Valley with Albert Bierstadt and Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1863) and to Hawaii (1864). He then traveled to New York via Salt Lake City to take over the lease of Bierstadt's studio in the Tenth Street Building.
Soon after arriving in New York in 1866, Perry's rural genre pictures secured his election as an Associate and Academician at the National Academy. From the beginning, he became the Academy's most active liberal voice, frequently clashing with conservatives such as Eastman Johnson, Jervis McEntee, and Worthington Whittredge. The initial controversy was a long and bitter debate over the method of conducting the Academy's schools. Perry advocated charging tuition and merging with the Cooper Union to ensure competent, salaried instructors. As recording secretary between 1871 and 1873, he worked with William Page toward this end. Although conservative plotting defeated his bid for the Council in 1875, he was elected by the 1877-8 season, when he finally prevailed on the tuition issue. (He served on the Council again from 1882 to 1885 and as corresponding secretary in 1895-6.) Other causes for which he was a spokesman were opening the NAD galleries on Sundays (he succeeded), barring glass on pictures hung in Annuals (with the help of Winslow Homer, he succeeded), and purchasing a 57th Street site for the new Academy building in 1897 (he failed).
In addition to his Academy activities, Perry kept up an active schedule of travel. He returned to Europe in 1873-4 and spent an additional three years in California beginning in 1878. It was during a trip to Sandwich, NH that he met Fanny F. Hering, whom he married in 1899 at the age of 68. They spent their summers in Sandwich thereafter. Before his death, Perry made gifts to the Academy of photographs, prints, and a copy he executed of a Madonna by Titian.
