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Paul Peel (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]

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 studied at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Decoratifs, later enrolling in the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts. He studied afterwards with Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant in his private atelier and then with him at the Académie Julian as well as with Henri Doucet and Jules Lefebvre (1877-1890).^[2] In 1883, he exhibited his first painting at the Paris Salon, where he would continue to exhibit regularly until 1892. His paintings have a conservative quality, but a few later works reveal that he was a convert to Impressionist colour and light.

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.

Paul Peel’s After the Bath addresses the subject of childhood by portraying two nude children, fresh from the bath, warming themselves by a fireplace. Peel lends further warmth to the atmosphere by accentuating the chiaroscuro* effects in the scene, which is based on a photograph. Shown at the 1890 Salon de la Société des artistes français in Paris, the painting won a third-class medal – a first in the history of Canadian art. After the Bath was praised by critics in France, but Canadian viewers, not understanding the painter’s intention of expressing the innocence of childhood, were disconcerted by the display of nudity.

After receiving drawing lessons from his farther, a marble cutter and stone carver, Ontario-born Paul Peel went on to study in the United States and France. He spent several summers painting landscapes at Pont-Aven, in Brittany. Although he produced a few genre scenes, Peel preferred to paint nude figures in domestic interiors. His work closely adhered to the academic conventions of realistic portrayal, and he exhibited several times at the Paris Salon. Just as his career was in full ascent, he died prematurely of a lung infection, leaving a body of work that testifies to his technical virtuosity.