Background
Perugini was born in Naples, but lived with his family in England from the ages of six to 17.
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.
Perugini"s 1878 picture A Girl Reading, perhaps his best-known single work, is in the collection of the Manchester Art lieutenant 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. He died in London.