Madame Verdier, circa 1885-86

Estate of the artist Isaure Verdier Peel By descent to Marguerite Peel G. Blair Lang Gallery, Toronto H.R. Milner Collection, Edmonton Private Collection, Toronto

The H.R. Milner Collection, Edmonton Art Gallery, 1976, no. 51 Paul Peel: A Retrospective, 1860-1892, London Regional Art Gallery, September 6 - October 26, 1986, no. 29

J.E. Martin, The H.R. Milner Collection, Edmonton Art Gallery, 1976, reproduced Victoria Baker, Paul Peel: A Retrospective, 1860-1892 , London Regional Art Gallery,1986, page 42, reproduced page 120

Paul Peel met Isaure Franchette Verdier, the Danish-born painter he would go on to marry, in Pont-Aven in 1884. The two artists were visiting the Brittany region, she with her mother, Signe, and he with his sister, Mildred, where they reportedly stayed at the same pension. Isaure and Paul developed a romantic relationship, and were subsequently engaged by the following summer and married by January 1886. This detailed portrait depicts Peel’s mother-in-law, which was shown in May at the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Art historian Victoria Baker writes that “Signe Verdier was an important figure in Peel’s life. A clever businesswoman, she managed both the Verdier glove factory established by her late husband, and a fashionable antique shop situated in the heart of Copenhagen[.] Supportive of her son-in-law’s career, she apparently exhibited his work in the shop windows.”