His mother arranged for the young Charles to get his first drawing classes from the Dutch sculptor Johannes Antonius van der Ven, who was then studying at the Antwerp Academy.

He left formal school education at the early age of fourteen and was accepted together with Godfried Guffens to take lessons at the private studio located in the Vleeshuis of Nicaise de Keyser.

At the time de Keyser had about 30 pupils including some who came to prominence such as Edouard Hamman, Jan Swerts, Joseph Lies and Johan Bernard Wittkamp.

At the same time Verlat followed courses at the Antwerp Academy where he studied, among others, with Gustave Wappers and Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans.

He participated in the Prix de Rome of Belgium in 1847 but was not successful, possible as the result of his partial incapacitation due to a broken arm.

Fortunately, a wealthy relative called Albert Marnef van Wespelaer provided him in 1849 with a stipend that allowed him to continue his studies for four years.

This resulted in his 1857 work Coup de collier (now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp) showing two horses struggling to pull a heavy cart loaded with bricks while being whipped by their handlers.

[2] When he exhibited it at the 1857 Paris Salon the work was mocked in the French magazine Le Charivari with a cartoon showing men helping to push a very heavy cart out of the Salon and the text "Le public poussant à la roue pour aider la charrette à sortir de l’Exposition de peinture" (The public pushing the wheel to help the cart leave the painting exhibition).

Verlat took revenge by painting a monkey shaving itself while wiping its feet on the copy of the newspaper in which the criticism had been published.

He also painted religious subjects and his Pietà of 1866 was so successful that it earned him the distinction of being appointed a knight in the French Legion of Honour.

[2] His students during this period included Edward Arthur Fellowes Prynne, the British Pre-Raphaelite painter, whose early works are clearly influenced by Verlat.

[8] At the time, panoramic paintings, large artworks that show a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject such as a landscape, military battle or other historical event, were all the rage in Europe.

Of the four historical paintings he planned to install only one showing The Duke of Alva's statue dragged through the streets of Antwerp was finished at the time of his death.

During this period he made many portraits, animal paintings, religious compositions and decorations for the palace of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders in Brussels.

[2] In January 1886 the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh matriculated in painting and drawing at the Antwerp Academy.

Verlat organised for van Gogh to attend the drawing classes after antique plaster models given by Eugène Siberdt.

[4] On 31 March 1886, which was about a month after the confrontation with Siberdt, the teachers of the Academy decided that 17 students, including van Gogh, had to repeat a year.

He was later influenced by other contemporary art movements: the German Idealists whom he knew through Ary Scheffer in Paris and the Realism of Gustave Courbet.

Despite these many influences, his main inspiration was the work of the Flemish Baroque masters Rubens, van Dyck and Jordaens.

The monkeys in the scenes are often dressed in costumes which adds comedy to their 'aping' of a specific human action (often a vice such as smoking or gambling) or occupation such as art critic, dentist, painter, musician etc.