Paul Peel

Paul Peel (Canadian, 1860-1892) Getting ready for the hunt signed 'PAUL PEEL 1886' (lower left) oil on canvas 77.5 x 60.3cm (30 1/2 x 23 3/4in). Born into an artistic family in London, Ontario, Peel's skill and talent were apparent from a very young age and by seventeen he was receiving training under renowned American artist Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia. Three years later, Peel moved to Europe eventually studying under Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. At 23, his first painting was accepted into the Paris Salon. Many more were to follow. The year 1886 was an important one for Peel. In January he wed Danish artist Isaure Verdier and welcomed the arrival of their first child, a boy, in October. His mother-in-law, who owned a fashionable Copenhagen antique shop and represented her son-in-law's work, sold a related painting also executed in 1886 to Alexandra, Princess of Wales while the princess was visiting her native city. This work, entitled Two Friends, remains in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen at Sandringham. Preparing for the Hunt is consistent with what collectors have relished about Peel's oeuvre. The young boys in the foreground could be Peel's "Bubble Boy" or "Young Botanist" grown taller and bigger. Such typical Peel subjects, young children and their pets, while unabashedly sentimental nonetheless continue to resonate with us. Peel was quite possibly the most famous Canadian painter in Europe in his day. Sadly, his career abruptly ended with his premature death from Tuberculosis a month short of his thirty-second birthday. To some extent fashion, and its myriad vagaries, have been unkind to the artist. David Burnett observes that while the popular appeal of Peel's work has endured, he has not always been as fortunate with critics who favoured a less academic approach to painting or spurned Peel's international style in favour of a more nationalist approach to art as espoused by the Group of Seven. However, Burnett also remarks on the "scholarly attention now being paid to nineteenth century academic art in an effort to redress the imbalance of an art history which so long favoured an 'evolutionary' sense of development." Despite his extraordinarily short life, Paul Peel became and remains, one of Canada's pre-eminent nineteenth century painters. Literature: Victoria Baker, Paul Peel: A retrospective 1860-1892, London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario 1986, pp. 39-43. David Burnett, Masterpieces of Canadian Art from the National Gallery of Canada, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1990, page 52.

LOT 40 PAUL PEEL 1860 - 1892 PORTRAIT OF MADAME VERDIER stamped in script by Blair Laing lower right Paul Peel; titledon four labels and dated c.1885-6 on two on the reverse oil on canvas 5,000—7,000 CAD measurements measurements 39.4 by 31.8 cm. alternate measurements 15 ½ by 12 ½ in. stamped in script by Blair Laing lower right Paul Peel; titledon four labels and dated c.1885-6 on two on the reverse oil on canvas Estate of the artist Isaure Verdier Peel, the artist's wife By descent to Marguerite Peel, the artist's daughter G. Blair Laing, Toronto (purchased in 1963) H.R. Milner Collection, Edmonton Private Collection, Toronto The H.R. Milner Collection, Edmonton Art Gallery, 1976, no.51 Paul Peel Retrospective, London Regional Art Gallery, September6 - October 26, 1986, no. 29 J.E. Martin, The H.R. Milner Collection, Edmonton Art Gallery,1976, no. 51, reproduced Victoria Baker, Paul Peel, London Regional Art Gallery, London,1986, p. 120, no. 29, reproduced This portrait is of Peel's Danish mother-in-law. This portrait is of Peel's Danish mother-in-law.

Paul Peel (Canadian, 1860-1892) Getting ready for the hunt signed 'PAUL PEEL 1886' (lower left) oil on canvas 77.5 x 60.3cm (30 1/2 x 23 3/4in). Footnote: Born into an artistic family in London, Ontario, Peel's skill and talent were apparent from a very young age and by seventeen he was receiving training under renowned American artist Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia. Three years later, Peel moved to Europe eventually studying under Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. At 23, his first painting was accepted into the Paris Salon. Many more were to follow. The year 1886 was an important one for Peel. In January he wed Danish artist Isaure Verdier and welcomed the arrival of their first child, a boy, in October. His mother-in-law, who owned a fashionable Copenhagen antique shop and represented her son-in-law's work, sold a related painting also executed in 1886 to Alexandra, Princess of Wales while the princess was visiting her native city. This work, entitled Two Friends, remains in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen at Sandringham. Preparing for the Hunt is consistent with what collectors have relished about Peel's oeuvre. The young boys in the foreground could be Peel's "Bubble Boy" or "Young Botanist" grown taller and bigger. Such typical Peel subjects, young children and their pets, while unabashedly sentimental nonetheless continue to resonate with us. Peel was quite possibly the most famous Canadian painter in Europe in his day. Sadly, his career abruptly ended with his premature death from Tuberculosis a month short of his thirty-second birthday. To some extent fashion, and its myriad vagaries, have been unkind to the artist. David Burnett observes that while the popular appeal of Peel's work has endured, he has not always been as fortunate with critics who favoured a less academic approach to painting or spurned Peel's international style in favour of a more nationalist approach to art as espoused by the Group of Seven. However, Burnett also remarks on the "scholarly attention now being paid to nineteenth century academic art in an effort to redress the imbalance of an art history which so long favoured an 'evolutionary' sense of development." Despite his extraordinarily short life, Paul Peel became and remains, one of Canada's pre-eminent nineteenth century painters. Literature: Victoria Baker, Paul Peel: A retrospective 1860-1892, London Regional Art Gallery, London, Ontario 1986, pp. 39-43. David Burnett, Masterpieces of Canadian Art from the National Gallery of Canada, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1990, page 52.

LOT 45 PAUL PEEL 1860 - 1892 BRINGING HOME THE FLOCK signed, dated and inscribed lower left PAUL PEEL, 1881Brittany oil on canvas 50,000—70,000 CAD measurements 63.5 by 53.3 cm. alternate measurements 25 by 21 in. PROVENANCE Possibly sold at Oliver, Coate & Co., Toronto, October,1890. no. 31, under the title, Return of the Flock Private Collection, Ontario LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Victoria Baker, Paul Peel, A Retrospective, 1860 - 1892, London,1986, p. 26, quote by A. Henry Blackburn CATALOGUE NOTE Peel studied his craft in Philadelphia under Thomas Eakins andlater in the Paris ateliers where the study of anatomy and theacademic tradition were stressed. It was in Paris that he soon mastered how to depict the effectsof light and shadow in his paintings and, as in Bringing Home theFlock, his "plein air" images are a testament to how quickly heabsorbed how to depict strong light in his art while still strivingto adhere to the academic principles. This was Peel's first summer in Pont Aven, Brittany and Peel wasto carefully document what he saw. He delighted in sentimentalstudies of children and this work is a colourful example of life inthis small tourist resort for artists. As Henry Blackburn noted in 1879: It would be very strange if a country so besprinkled with whitecaps should not attract artists in search of picturesque costumeand scenes of pastoral life... Brittany offers the bestopportunities for outdoor study, and more suggestive scenes for thepainter. This study of the young Breton girl in her native costumeexemplifies the landscape of Brittany.

LOT 40 PAUL PEEL, R.C.A. YOUNG GIRL WITH TERRIER, oil on canvas, signed and inscribed “Paris - 1889” 21 1/2" x 28"; 53.8 cm x 70 cm Auction Estimate: $200000 / $250000 Provenance: G. Blair Laing Limited, Toronto. Private Collection, Toronto. Heffel Fine Art Auction House, Vancouver, May 25, 2006, lot31. Private Collection, Ontario. Literature: Duncan Campbell Scott, “At the Mermaid Inn”, The Globe (Toronto),22 Apr., 1893. Victoria Baker, Paul Peel, A Retrospective, 1860-1892, LondonRegional Art Gallery, London, 1986, page 58. Peel’’’’s significance was mainly from his accomplishment as apainter who depicted childhood, his subjects usually composed ofmothers and children situated both in interior and landscapecompositions. The poet Duncan Campbell Scott best expressed the artist’’’’s appealwhen, on Peel’’’’s death, he wrote: “The whole conception is so natural and so charming that it seemsto open up a new view of the uses to which the commonest domesticincidents of child life. There is nothing in the world around whichtender and human feelings gather as the everyday life of children,and there is hardly an incident which, properly treated, might notserve to show some touch of character. And what an effect suchpoetic reproductions have upon the mature spectator! They renew ina profound way the associations of childhood, and mingle them witha regret for the disillusionment which life and a sordid experiencehave given…My feelings were stirred anew with regret upon lookingon Paul Peel’’’’s picture; regret that he had not lived to work outto the end that strain of tender and poetic feeling which hadcommenced to make him famous.”