Born in 1831 in Boston, Enoch Wood Perry, Jr, is internationally recognized for genre subjects -depictions of people engaged in everyday activities, and also for portraits of prominent Americans, including Ulysses S. Grant and Jefferson Davis.

He was educated at the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany and then at Thomas Couture's studio in France. Perry also traveled to Venice, where he served as the U.S. Consul between 1856 and 1858. When he returned to the United States in 1856, he dedicated his painting to the pursuit of American themes.

Like many Americans artists, Perry was likely intrigued by the books, travel articles, and photographs that began to circulate in the mid-nineteenth century. He traveled to northern California,...