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WHYTESS I N C E 1 7 8 3
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Charles Edward Perugini (1839-1918)
LOVERS IN A GARDEN
oil on canvas laid on board
signed in monogram lower right
45.75 by 55.50in. (116.21 by 140.97cm)
Provenance:
Private collection, New York;
Private collection,Westport , Co. Mayo
“Elegance, purity, and correctness of draughtsmanship, perfect refnement and dignity, grace and charm, delicacy in colour, and the
tenderness of harmonious line - these are the qualities of his academic art which are now, it must be recognised outside, the sweep of
the modern movement, but which has delighted two generations of picture-lovers who look for sound scholarship severely disciplined
and veiled by melodious sweetness and distinction.”
From Perugini’s obituary recorded in The Times on 23 December 1918.
Although Charles Edward Perugini was a boy when the Pre-Raphaelite movement began in 1848, its efects had far-reaching
consequences and were felt late into the 1890s with the beginning of the Arts and Crafts movement; a development which had its roots
in England but which spread rapidly throughout Ireland and the British isles. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a secret society formed
by artist’s who had found themselves disenchanted by the Royal Academy and who, in their disillusionment, turned to the art of the early
Renaissance and late Medieval Age,, fnding solace in its moral message, truthful depictions of nature and minute attention to detail all of
which were in stark contrast to the mass industrialisation of their own era.
Perugini, born “Carlo” in Naples relocated with his family to London at an early age but he returned to his native Italy and later Paris to
begin his artistic training. While on the Continent he met Lord Frederick Leighton, an associate of the Brotherhood, to whom he would
become protégé. Under Leighton’s tutorage from the 1850s Perugini submitted to the RA, garnered numerous commissions and gained
fnancial success. In 1873 Perugini married Charles Dickens’ daughter, Kate, an artist and muse to members of the Brotherhood including
John Everett Milliais (1829-1896) and widow of Charles Allston Collins, also a Pre-Raphaelite. An accomplished portrait and genre painter,
Perugini, was her second husband who she both posed for and collaborated with on artistic projects during their marriage. It is possible
that the lovers depicted here are an idealised portrayal of husband and wife, the fgure of the man with his distinctly Italianate colouring
and aquiline nose point to a possible self-portrait while images of Kate are comparable to the present “child-bride”.
Lovers in a Garden may date to the late 1880s or early 1890s. The classical setting and abundance of delicate foliage complement the
tender romantic scene between the man and his young love and are comparable with the setting for The Green Lizard 1902 which he
exhibited in the RA that year. The subject and sitters’ dress echo literary inspirations of the time and while not as overt in their afections
as depicted by his Irish counterpart, Sir Frederic William Burton in The Meeting on the Turret Stairs, 1864 (National Gallery of Ireland) for
example, theirs is a shared sentiment.
€50,000-€70,000 (£42,020-£58,820 approx)