Enoch Wood Perry, Jr. was born in Boston in 1831.  He was a genre, landscape, and portrait painter who enjoyed success in Salt Lake City as portraitist for the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   He died in 1915 in New York.

In 1852 Perry began study in Düsseldorf with Emmanuel Leutze and then went to Paris to study with Thomas Couture.  He spent the remaining years of the 1850s as U.S. Consul in Vienna. He returned to the United States at end of the decade.

In 1860 Perry established a studio in New Orleans where he painted portraits of notables in local society.   With the outbreak of the Civil War, Perry left New Orleans for California in 1862.  He accompanied Albert Bierstadt on his painting trips to Yosemite after which he went to Hawaii and painted portraits of the native kings.  In 1866 he was in Salt Lake City painting a series of portraits of Brigham Young and other dignitaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Although he was a successful portrait painter, Perry was best known for his genre paintings. The True American (1875) featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art permanent collection is an example.  Perry was named associate of the National Academy of Design in 1868 and an academician of the Academy in 1869. 

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah.