Philip Perkins was born in Waverly, Tennessee. Following studies at Vanderbilt University (1925-1926) and the Chicago Art Institute (1926-1931), he moved to Paris in 1932 where he studied with Jean Marchaud, Louis Marcoussis and Fernand Leger. In 1934 he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon de Tuilleries in Paris. He moved to New York in 1940 where he shared a studio with Yves Tanguy. In 1947, the year prior to painting Forgotten Mastery, Perkins participated in the International Surrealist Exhibition at Galerie Maeght in Paris. The present work is a superb example of those for which he is best known–geometric, cubist influenced work of the forties.
