Lot 58: Molly's Ball Dress

Kate Perugini (1839-1929) Molly's Ball Dress signed with monogram (lower left) oil on canvas 46 ¾ x 25 ¾ in. (118.8 x 65.4 cm.)

118.8 x 65.4 cm.

London, Royal Academy, 1885, no. 366. Chicago, World's Columbian Exposition, Woman's Building, 1893.

Academy Notes, 1885, illustrated p. 48.

Perugini was the daughter of the novelist Charles Dickens (1812-70). She first married Charles Alston Collins (1828-73), the Pre-Raphaelite painter whose best known work, Convent Thoughts, is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. After his death she married the artist Carlo Edward Perugini (1839-1918). As the daughter of the most famous writer of his age, she enjoyed celebrity and a high profile in society. She moved in artistic circles which allowed her to explore her own painting and to meet many of the most inspirational men and women of London, Paris and Italy. Millais encouraged Kate’s ambitions and she became a successful portrait painter, particularly insightful when painting children. In 1859 Millais immortalised Kate as a woman parting with her lover on the eve of Waterloo, in The Black Brunswicker (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight). Molly, the subject of this picture, was the daughter of Sir John Hare (1844-1921), actor and Manager of the Garrick Theatre, London. Perugini also painted Hare's other daughter Effie (exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1883, no. 80). Our painting clearly shows the influence of Millais's child portraits that were achieving enormous success at the time, such as For the Squire (1882, private collection) and Little Miss Muffet (dated 1884, sold in these Rooms, 23 November 2005, lot 11). Perugini also echoes Regency portraiture in her use of a restrained silk dress, long organza gloves and monogrammed bag. We are grateful to Lucinda Hawksley, great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.