diff --git a/docs/api-guide/authentication.md b/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
index 342fabe7b..fae86386d 100644
--- a/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
+++ b/docs/api-guide/authentication.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Authentication is the mechanism of associating an incoming request with a set of
 
 REST framework provides a number of authentication schemes out of the box, and also allows you to implement custom schemes.
 
-Authentication will run the first time either the `request.user` or `request.auth` properties are accessed, and determines how those properties are initialized.
+Authentication is always run at the very start of the view, before the permission and throttling checks occur, and before any other code is allowed to proceed.
 
 The `request.user` property will typically be set to an instance of the `contrib.auth` package's `User` class.
 
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ In some circumstances instead of returning `None`, you may want to raise an `Aut
 Typically the approach you should take is:
 
 * If authentication is not attempted, return `None`.  Any other authentication schemes also in use will still be checked.
-* If authentication is attempted but fails, raise a `AuthenticationFailed` exception.  An error response will be returned immediately, without checking any other authentication schemes.
+* If authentication is attempted but fails, raise a `AuthenticationFailed` exception.  An error response will be returned immediately, regardless of any permissions checks, and without checking any other authentication schemes.
 
 You *may* also override the `.authenticate_header(self, request)` method.  If implemented, it should return a string that will be used as the value of the `WWW-Authenticate` header in a `HTTP 401 Unauthorized` response.
 
diff --git a/rest_framework/tests/authentication.py b/rest_framework/tests/authentication.py
index 2a2bfba95..7b754af5d 100644
--- a/rest_framework/tests/authentication.py
+++ b/rest_framework/tests/authentication.py
@@ -3,25 +3,39 @@ from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 from django.http import HttpResponse
 from django.test import Client, TestCase
 from rest_framework import HTTP_HEADER_ENCODING
+from rest_framework import exceptions
 from rest_framework import permissions
 from rest_framework import status
 from rest_framework.authtoken.models import Token
-from rest_framework.authentication import TokenAuthentication, BasicAuthentication, SessionAuthentication
+from rest_framework.authentication import (
+    BaseAuthentication,
+    TokenAuthentication,
+    BasicAuthentication,
+    SessionAuthentication
+)
 from rest_framework.compat import patterns
+from rest_framework.tests.utils import RequestFactory
 from rest_framework.views import APIView
 import json
 import base64
 
 
+factory = RequestFactory()
+
+
 class MockView(APIView):
     permission_classes = (permissions.IsAuthenticated,)
 
+    def get(self, request):
+        return HttpResponse({'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3})
+
     def post(self, request):
         return HttpResponse({'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3})
 
     def put(self, request):
         return HttpResponse({'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'c': 3})
 
+
 urlpatterns = patterns('',
     (r'^session/$', MockView.as_view(authentication_classes=[SessionAuthentication])),
     (r'^basic/$', MockView.as_view(authentication_classes=[BasicAuthentication])),
@@ -187,3 +201,24 @@ class TokenAuthTests(TestCase):
                                {'username': self.username, 'password': self.password})
         self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_200_OK)
         self.assertEqual(json.loads(response.content.decode('ascii'))['token'], self.key)
+
+
+class IncorrectCredentialsTests(TestCase):
+    def test_incorrect_credentials(self):
+        """
+        If a request contains bad authentication credentials, then
+        authentication should run and error, even if no permissions
+        are set on the view.
+        """
+        class IncorrectCredentialsAuth(BaseAuthentication):
+            def authenticate(self, request):
+                raise exceptions.AuthenticationFailed('Bad credentials')
+
+        request = factory.get('/')
+        view = MockView.as_view(
+            authentication_classes=(IncorrectCredentialsAuth,),
+            permission_classes=()
+        )
+        response = view(request)
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, status.HTTP_403_FORBIDDEN)
+        self.assertEqual(response.data, {'detail': 'Bad credentials'})
diff --git a/rest_framework/views.py b/rest_framework/views.py
index fa7425828..81cbdcbb2 100644
--- a/rest_framework/views.py
+++ b/rest_framework/views.py
@@ -257,6 +257,16 @@ class APIView(View):
                 return (renderers[0], renderers[0].media_type)
             raise
 
+    def perform_authentication(self, request):
+        """
+        Perform authentication on the incoming request.
+
+        Note that if you override this and simply 'pass', then authentication
+        will instead be performed lazily, the first time either
+        `request.user` or `request.auth` is accessed.
+        """
+        request.user
+
     def check_permissions(self, request):
         """
         Check if the request should be permitted.
@@ -305,6 +315,7 @@ class APIView(View):
         self.format_kwarg = self.get_format_suffix(**kwargs)
 
         # Ensure that the incoming request is permitted
+        self.perform_authentication(request)
         self.check_permissions(request)
         self.check_throttles(request)