Paul Peel, After the Bath
Paul Peel
born London, Canada West (now Ontario), 1860; died Paris, France, 1892
After the Bath
1890
oil on canvas
147.3 x 110.5 cm
Gift of the Government of the Province of Ontario, 1972
This painting attracted me because it was one of the larges that I had ever seen hanging on a wall. I love a giant product, especially with oil paintings as it seems that the scene is happening right in front of you, the distance between the picture and the receiver smaller than before. With the large size, the details are easily displayed. Peel’s painting is very realistic and shows the objects in three dimensions, which is not easy to depict. I also was transferred into the picture, feeling the warmth the children felt from the fire in contrast to the cold weather of winter.
The warmth is relayed through the contrast of colours. The fire casts a orange-yellow glow on the children’s fronts, whilst their backs are a cold blue-grey. Watching from afar, one feels cold because they are not near the fire, but if I allow myself to step into the picture I feel much warmer.
The astounding detail that Peel presents in the oil painting adds to its realism. He takes great care in painting out the crease in the thigh of the girl sitting down and the line of her backbone as well as the tendrils of hair that wisp outwards, as if embracing the fire. He manages to capture the chubbiness the hands and the skin tone of each child. However, there is contrast in this as well as the rest of the painting is not in such detail as the two children, causing the focus to be solely on them and the glow of the fire on their bodies.
At the beginning, I thought the title of the painting would be “Warmth”. After, I read that it was titled “After the Bath”, and I smiled in m y mind. The painting depicted the aftermath of an event, but not the event. The artist seems to want the receiver to use their own imagination for the scene and then he tells us his purpose. Similarly, the fire in the painting is not directly viewed; we see only the effects of the warmth of the fire – the glow on the children’s skin and the reflection of it on the floor. Although the fire is not visible, the viewer’s eyes are drawn towards it because the subjects of the painting are facing it and presumably observing it as well. Hence, there are three levels presented to the viewer: one, as a viewer, two, as a viewer in the painting, and three, as one of the children. In this way, Peel’s painting allows the receiver to use a wide scope of imagination as to what the fire looks like.
Peel was known for his depictions of children and also nude humans, being one of the first Canadian painters to explore nudes as a subject.
The Canadian Art History online archive reports that Paul had two small children, a boy and a girl that often posed nude for him and he used them as subjects for several of his art works.
Paul Peel (7 November 1860 – 3 October 1892) was a Canadian academic 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.
Peel was born in London, Ontario, and received his art training from his father from a young age. Later he studied under William Lees Judson and at thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts underThomas Eakins. He later moved to Paris, Francewhere he received art instruction at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Jean-Léon Gérôme and at theAcadémie Julian under Benjamin Constant, Henri Doucet and Jules Lefebvre.
In 1882 he married Isaure Verdier and had two children with her: a son (Robert Andre, in 1886) and a daughter (Emilie Marguerite, in 1888).
Peel travelled widely in Canada and in Europe, exhibiting as a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy. He also exhibited at international shows like the Paris Salon, where he won a bronze medal in 1890 for his painting After the Bath. 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.
He contracted a lung infection and died in his sleep, in Paris, France, at the age of 32.
(information on Paul Peel courtesy of Wikipedia)
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