In 1860 she was the model for the girl in Millais’s famous picture “The Black Brunswicker.” It is interesting to note that Kate did not actually meet the young Life Guards trooper, who is shown in the picture as her lover. Each leaned separately against a substantial wooden stake. 

In 1860 she married Charles Alston Collins, younger brother of Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), another famous Victorian writer. Unfortunately Charles Collins died in 1973. In 1875 she married Charles Perugini, friend and protégé of Frederic Leighton, and painter of immaculate classical pictures. The marriage was very happy, and to mark the occasion, Millais, painted a rather unusual portrait of the bride, wearing a black dress, looking backwards over her shoulder at the viewer. There was one son, Leonard, who died before his first birthday. 

Kate specialised in portraits of children, one being sold recently when the contents of Thornton Manor, the home of the third Lord Leverhulme were auctioned. Charles Perugini died in 1917, and Kate twelve years later in her ninetieth year.

Obituary