Harry Peiris (10 August 1904 – 14 March 1988) was a Sri Lankan painter. He was one of the founders of the

Colombo '43 Group The '43 Group was a 20th-century modern art school established in August 1943 in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon). The group was essentially an association of like-minded artists who had broken away from the Ceylon Society of Arts, le ...

, and has been considered the finest Asian portraitist of the 20th century working in a European style. Charles Henry ("Harry") Alfred Pieris was born on 10 August 1904 to a wealthy landed family. He was the eighth of eleven children of Henry ("Harry") Pieris and Lydia de Mel, one of the 9 daughters of Jacob De Mel. Sir James Peiris and Sir Henry de Mel were among his uncles, and his numerous cousins included

Harold Peiris Harold Peiris (1904–1988) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, author, scholar, teacher, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. He was the co-founder of the Lionel Wendt Art Centre and its sole life-trustee.Lakdasa De Mel Most Rev. Lakdasa Jacob De Mel (1902–1976), MA was the first Bishop of Kurunegala, Sri Lanka and the last Metropolitan Archbishop of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylo Lakdasa De Mel was born on 24 March 1902 in Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, to a prom ...

and Devar Surya Sena. Pieris received his early art education at the Atelier School of Art under the tutelage of Mudaliyar A. C. G. S. Amarasekara. He studied Pali and Sanskrit at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and went on to study art at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

under

Sir William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

. He won the prize for the best portrait in 1926, the portrait of his uncle, Sir James Pieris. Pieris returned to Ceylon in 1927, having gained a diploma from the Royal College of Art. He then went to Paris in 1929, spending six years under the tutelage of

Robert Falk Robert Rafailovich Falk (russian: Роберт Рафаилович Фальк, October 15, 1886 - October 1, 1958) was a painter. Biography Falk was born in Moscow in 1886. In 1903 to 1904 he studied art in the studios of Konstantin Yuon and ...

. He developed a close friendship with

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

and worked at the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acad� ...

. He returned to Ceylon in 1935 after a teaching stint at the Rabindranath Tagore's Abode of Peace in

Santiniketan Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son ...

, and took over the management of his family landholdings as well as working as a portraitist. Miss Lalani Canekeratne

He was a strong influence in the

, serving as its secretary.

Ivan Peries Ivan Peries (31 July 1921 – 13 February 1988) was a founder member of the Colombo '43 Group of Sri Lankan artists, and became one of its leading painters. Born near Colombo, he spent more than half his life in self-imposed exile in London ...

was a pupil of his. He founded the Sapumal Foundation to which he bequeathed his home and art collection.A houseful of art
The Sunday Times, Retrieved 9 June 2015
Retrieved 9 June 2015

References

External links

LIONEL WNNDT THEATRETHE 43 GROUPDown memory lane with Lionel Pieris
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peiris, Harry 1904 births 1988 deaths Sri Lankan painters Sinhalese writers Sinhalese artists Sri Lankan translators People of British Ceylon People from Colombo De Soysa family Alumni of the Royal College of Art Alumni of the University of Oxford