Paul Peel was a Canadian realist painter. Best known for his Romantic academic paintings, he frequently depicted nudes, rural scenes, and upper class life, and painted in an academic, realistically rendered style. Peel trained extensively in the fine arts, studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins before moving to Paris in the latter 19th century for further education at the École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Julian under Henri Doucet. He exhibited regularly throughout his life, including as a participant of the Ontario Society of Artists and at the Paris Salon. Born in London, Canada on November 7, 1860, Peel died in Paris, France after contracting a lung infection on October 3, 1892.