Charles Edward Perugini | Victorian Era painter

Charles Edward Perugini (1839-1918) was an Italian-born British painter of the Victorian era.

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

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.

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 (1 settembre, 1839 - 22 dicembre 1918), originariamente Carlo Perugini, fu un pittore inglese nato in Italia dell'era Vittoriana.

Perugini è nato a Napoli, ma è vissuto con la sua famiglia in Inghilterra dall'età di 6 anni fino ai 17 anni. Si è formato in Italia con Giuseppe Bonolis e Giuseppe Mancinelli, ed a Parigi sotto Ary Scheffer.

Diventato un protetto di Lord Leighton, che lo riportò in Inghilterra nel 1863 dove divenne il suo assistente di studio.

Sotto l'influenza di Leighton, iniziò come pittore di scene classiche, poi si dedicò alla pittura di ritratti e quadri di belle donne e dei bambini.

Nel 1874, sposò la figlia più giovane del romanziere Charles Dickens, Kate Perugini anche lei pittrice, che spesso ha collaborato con il marito.