Harry Peiris (original) (raw)

Harry Peiris (10 August 1904 – 14 March 1988) was a Sri Lankan painter. He is considered one the important Sri Lanka artists of the Colombo '43 Group of the 20th century. Born on 10 August 1904 to a wealthy landed family, he was the eighth of eleven children. Sir James Peiris was his uncle and Harold Peiris his cousin. 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 and went on to study art at the Royal College of Art under Sir William Rothenstein. He won the prize for the best portrait in 1926, the portrait of his uncle, Sir James Pieris. He returned to Ceylon in 1927, having gained a diploma from the Royal College of Art. He went to Paris in 1929, spendi