Japanese dolls and fan 1889

Curator: Alright, let’s dive in! This is "Japanese Dolls and Fan," a smaller oil painting by Paul Peel, created in 1889. What’s your initial reaction to it? Editor: Those dolls...they have this intense stillness that's a little unsettling, but intriguing. There’s also a strange intimacy. Curator: You nailed it! Peel, being Canadian and painting this in Paris, was clearly engaging with Japonisme—a huge trend in the late 19th century. It’s interesting how Western artists grappled with unfamiliar cultures, often with somewhat bizarre outcomes. Look at how flat everything is! Editor: True! And those colors—the ochre background and intense red robes—feel really theatrical, like a staged performance. Are these even "Japanese" dolls, or a Westerner's fantasy of Japan? Curator: Good question. Peel's use of impasto does create texture and shadow on the silk and pottery but flattens the image at the same time, sort of undercutting realism despite his intent. I believe these are actually Japanese dolls. Peel collected items such as fans and Kimonos during a trip, and in that time frame, cultural sensitivity just wasn’t there like it is today. Editor: That makes sense, given the period. I’m really struck by those exposed doll feet, though. Is that infantilizing? Curator: Maybe a little. Peel was quite interested in depictions of childhood and innocence, often filtered through his own, potentially rose-tinted, lens of orientalist culture. It gets thorny! Editor: Exactly. The very act of collecting, displaying…there’s an element of power at play. Looking back from a contemporary perspective, it really challenges us to be conscious of cultural appropriation. Curator: Precisely! These objects become signifiers—loaded with assumptions, both personal for Peel, but even more for us now looking back. And to bring it back to Peel… it could be as simple as something pretty that triggered something profound in him that then translated to paint. Editor: Agreed, and it highlights the ongoing responsibility we have to unpack those assumptions. To consider the art-historical framework from which it comes and to then examine our reaction. I am going to be chewing on those porcelain dolls for days now! Curator: Ditto. Let’s go explore another work and wrestle with new paradoxes!