Paul Peel 1860 - 1892

Laing Galleries, Toronto

Private Collection, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Victoria Baker, Paul Peel, A Retrospective 1860-1892, London, 1986, p. 57, fig. 20, for an illustration of Peel's studio in Paris with the portrait standing by the easel. The photograph was taken in 1890 and we can date the portrait to that year.

This work has been viewed under UV and is in very good condition. There are small touch ups on the top of the sitter's hair, sides of her nose, chest, dress line and arms.
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Although Peel died at the age of thirty-two, he had already scaled the ladder of success internationally. He was the first Canadian painter to do so, and he achieved his deserved acclaim for his academically accomplished portraits and his sentimental paintings of small children, sun-drenched landscapes, and anecdotal paintings of domestic situations.

This fine portrait is perhaps a family member. The sitter's startling, penetrating gaze is strong and uncannily affecting. Peel's drawing is accurate to a fault, a characteristic of his ability and talent, and of his basic aesthetic, which was barely affected by the powerful tide of Impressionism that was sweeping across Europe during his painting years. In 1963, Blair Laing, the Toronto art dealer, visited Mary Peel Hammond, Peel's adopted great grand-daughter, who lived in California, and purchased sixteen canvases. Each was identified with a red stamp, visible here, to identify these works.