Lot 214: CHARLES EDWARD PERUGINI

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE NEW YORK COLLECTION

ENGLISH, 1839-1918
PORTRAIT OF A LADY

measurements
43 by 28 1/2 in.

alternate measurements
109.2 by 72.3 cm

signed with the artist's monogram (lower right)

oil on canvas

We are grateful to Lucinda Hawksley for contributing to this catalogue entry.

NOTE

Carlo Perugini was born in Naples in 1839. When he was in Rome in the 1850s, Perugini met Frederic Lord Leighton whose style would have a lasting influence on his work for the rest of his career. Perugini, who Anglocized his first name to Charles once in England (where he relocated in 1863) may have served as a model for Leighton's Cimabue's Madonna (1855, Royal Collection).

Perugini adjusted well to life in England, and started exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1863. The artist found further success (and gained more portrait commissions) in 1873, upon his marriage to Kate Dickens, the well-connected daughter of the best known author in England, Charles Dickens. An artist in her own right, Perugini's beautiful wife was also his most beloved subject, and it was initially suggested that the present work may represent her portrait. But the biographer of Kate Dickens, and her great-great-great-great niece, Lucinda Hawksley, has explained that this work is unlikely to be an image of Kate made from life. This is because her costume seems to be contemporary to the painting, and appears to date to the 1880s. Moreover, the model looks to be about 20 years old, while "Katey", as she was known, would have been in her forties by the time the work was painted. We know roughly what Kate looked like, from paintings Perugini himself made, such as Portrait of Mrs. Perugini (Charles Dickens Museum) and from works by other artists in her circle for whom she modeled, including John Everett Millais's great The Black Brunswicker of 1860 (Leverhulme Collection). And though the model in the present work shares some of her features, carries Kate's favorite flower, the rose, and wears a wedding ring, Perugini did not meet his wife until she was older than the sitter depicted here. They were married when she was 34 years old. It may be that some of the resemblance between Kate and the sitter in the present work are merely indicative of the artist's devotion to his wife, and his preference for including features similar to her own in his portraiture. The woman seen here, with her expectant gaze and beautifully detailed gown, is certainly imbued with a sense of wistful romance.

Whatever the identity of the sitter in the present portrait, which has been out of the public eye since at least the 1980s, when it was found unattributed in an antique shop, this work is an accomplished example from Perugini's mature period. He painted a number of portraits of beautiful sitters, whose costumes and settings spanned the ages, again showing the stamp of Leighton's influence, whose models were so often posed in classical garb (see lot 208) The present work represents Perugini's successful translation of Leighton's preoccupation with the creation of a harmonious composition, translated into a contemporary portrait.