Kate 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...