Perugini was born in Naples, but lived with his family in England from the ages of six to 17. He trained in Italy under Giuseppe Bonolis and Giuseppe Mancinelli, and in Paris under Ary Scheffer. He became a protégé of Lord Leighton, who brought him back to England in 1863.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Perugini may at first have worked as Leighton's studio assistant. Under Leighton's influence, he began as a painter of classical scenes; then

  

(via : wikimedia)

  

"he turned to the more profitable pastures of portrait painting, and genre pictures of pretty women and children."

 

L'habillage (via : giornivacanzieri)

 

Devant le miroir (via : artmagick)

 

Il m'aime, il ne m'aime pas, 1892 (via : nzmuseums.co.nz)

  

  

In 1874, he married the youngest daughter of novelist Charles Dickens, who as Kate Perugini  pursued her own artistic career, sometimes collaborating with her husband.

  

  

Portia (via : artmagick)

  

  

  

Perugini's 1878 picture A Girl Reading, perhaps his best-known single work, is in the collection of the Manchester Art Gallery.

 

 

 

  

  

  

It was bequeathed by James Thomas Blair in 1917.

  

Perugini's portrait of Sophy Gray, the sister-in-law of Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, was for many years mistaken for a work by Millais himself.

Perugini and his wife maintained an active social life in artistic circles of their era. He died in London.

 

 

 

Charles Edward Perugini (1839-1918)
Miss Helen Lindsay
Oil on canvas

 

 

 

Charles Edward Perugini (1839-1918)
The Lizard Charmer
Oil on canvas

 

  

 

Charles Edward Perugini painted

by Lord Frederic Leighton in 1855

 

 

  

  

  

A Summer Shower, by Charles Edward PeruginiPublic

 

 

 

 

Perugini's portrait of his wife Kate

 

 

 

 

A Girl Reading by Charles Edward Perugini. Original in Manchester Art Gallery.