Paul Peel

Paul Peel
Self-portrait from the National Gallery of Canada
Born	(1860-11-07)November 7, 1860 London, Ontario
Died	October 3, 1892(1892-10-03) (aged 31) Paris, France
Nationality	Canadian
Education	studied with William Lees Judson in London, Ontario; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins; École des Beaux-Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme; Académie Julian with Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Henri Doucet and Jules Lefebvre
Known for	Painting
Spouse(s)	Isaure Verdier (m. 1882)

The Little Shepherdess (1892). 160.6 × 114.0 cm. Oil on canvas. Art Gallery of Ontario

Paul Peel RCA (7 November 1860 – 3 October 1892) was a Canadian figure painter. Having won a medal at the 1890 Paris Salon, he became one of the first Canadian artists to receive international recognition in his lifetime.^[1]

Career and life[]

Peel was born in London, Ontario, and received his art training from his father from a young age.^[2] Later he studied with William Lees Judson and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins (1877-1880).^[2] He then moved to Paris in 1881, France where he received art instruction at the École des Beaux-Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme and further study at the Académie Julian with Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Henri Doucet and Jules Lefebvre (1877-1890).^[2]

In 1882, he married Isaure Verdier. They had two children: a son (Robert Andre, in 1886) and a daughter (Emilie Marguerite, in 1888).^[2]

Peel travelled widely in Canada and in Europe, exhibiting as a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.^[3] He also exhibited at international shows like the Paris Salon, where he won a bronze medal in 1890 for his painting After the Bath.^[2] He was known for his often sentimental nudes and for his pictures of children; he was among the first Canadian painters to explore the nude as a subject.^[4]

He contracted a lung infection and died in his sleep, in Paris, France, at the age of 31.^[2]

His childhood home is one of the many attractions at the Fanshawe Pioneer Village in London, Ontario.

Major works[]

Listed chronologically:

• Devotion (1881)
• Listening to the Skylark (1884)
• Mother and Child (1888)
• The Young Botanist (1888–1890)
• A Venetian Bather 1889
• Portrait of Gloria Roberts (1889)
• After the Bath (1890)
• The Young Biologist (1891)
• The Little Shepherdess (1892)
• Robert Andre Peel (c. 1892)
• Bennett Jull (1889–1890)

Adoration (1885) by Peel

References[]

Bibliography[]

• Victoria Baker, Paul Peel: A Retrospective, 1860-1892 (London Regional Art Gallery: London ON, 1986) ISBN 0-920872-74-3
• Boyanoski, Christine (2015). "Figures in the Landscape en plein air". Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven. Ian M. Thom (ed.). Vancouver and London, Eng.: Vancouver Art Gallery and Black Dog Publishing. pp. 59ff. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
• Bruce, Tobi; Cable, Patrick Shaw (2011). The French Connection: Canadian Painters at the Paris Salons 1880-1900. Hamilton, Ontario: Art Gallery of Hamilton. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
• MacDonald, Colin (1977). A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (First ed.). Ottawa: Canadian Paperbacks Publishing. Retrieved 10 August 2020.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paul Peel.

• Biography at the Canadian Encyclopedia
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Paul Peel fonds at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario