Charles Boutwood was born in Luton, Bedfordshire. The artist came to Cornwall with his friend Herbert Edward BUTLER in 1884. They had met as students at the Royal Academy Schools. While visiting Polperro, they met their future wives, the two Pond sisters, Thirza and Sophia.

Boutwood's paintings at the RA in 1885 got a mixed reception, but after studying at the Academie Julian in Paris under Bouguereau his work improved and his best-known painting of Polperro entitled 'The Young Fishermen' is now part of the Christine Schwartz collection in Chicago. He and Thirza were married in New York in 1889 and settled in Chicago, though they returned to Polperro several  times. He helped to found the Chicago Society of Artists, serving as its first president.