Paul Peel

PAULPEEL
(1860 - 1892)

Paul Peel was born in London, Ontario. He was the youngest of five children by John Robert Peel, a monument maker. His father taught drawing at the Mechanics' Institute in London where he also ran a business known to Londoners as The Peel Monument works. Paul started drawing cows, horses and other subjects in school when he was eight. Paul began studying under his father at the age of twelve. Afterwards, he studied under a local professional artist William Lee Judson who has studied in Paris under Bourguereau and Lefevre. He also studied at the Western School of Art which his father helped found. The Peel family were far from being wealthy and lived in a frame house at 238 Richmond not far from the monument works. During his years studying, Paul earned some money decorating circus wagons. Realizing his talent, the elder Peel gave his son his blessing to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and he enrolled in 1877. Peel worked under the direction of Thomas Eakins who had just come back from his advanced studies in Europe. In his teachings, Eakins insisted that the students make studies from life, whether animal or human, and he embodied in his work the fine union between classicism and impressionism.

In 1880, he completed his course at Philadelphia. At that time, he set up a studio in Toronto for a short time. In the same year, he went to London, England where he attended the Royal Academy for a couple of months. He moved to Paris in 1881, and for five years studied under Lefebvre, Boulanger, Gerôme and Constant. He adapted well to life in Paris and spoke French very well. He was also nimble and athletic, becoming quite skilled in fencing that he was an equal to the best swordsmen in France. Peel spent his summers in Calais, in Normandy, and Brittany at Concarneau and Pont-Aven where he met a Danish Girl, Isaure Verdier. Isaure's family was well off, but Paul had little money. The Verdier's, however, liked Paul, and they gave her their permission to marry him. In 1882, they were wed in Copenhagen. They had a son, Robert, and a daughter, Marguerite, who were born on 1884 and 1886 respectively. He adored his children ,and by 1888, he had began a series of paintings about them which were recognized internationally. The most famous was "After the Bath" which was awarded a third class medal by the Société des Artistes Français at its annual Paris Salon. Sarah Bernhardt, a famed art collector, made a bid for the painting, but it was sold at a higher price to the Hungarian Government.

Back in Toronto, times were financially hard, and the auction during an exhibit only gave Peel a net receipt of $2000 which was a great disappointment for him. He returned to Paris and continued to paint, usually well into the night. He contracted a lung infection, and while resting one day, he died in his sleep. While many of his paintings were given, passed on or purchased, to and for public collections, many have remained in the hands of private owners and art dealers. In 1929, for example, "After the Bath" sold to C.H. Carlisle, general manager of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Toronto for an undisclosed amount; the value of the painting was estimated by experts at that time to be $50,000. The piece was next purchased by R.S. McLaughlin, auto manufacturer, in 1930. In 1972, the McLaughlin estate gave it to the Ontario Government which in turn, turned it over to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

After the Bath (1890)

Luxemberg Gardens, Paris (1890)

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