Provenance:

Estate of the artist.
Isaure Peel.
Mildred Peel.
Dr. A.J. Peel (by 1922).
T.B. Loblaw, Toronto.
Estate of the Late T.B. Loblaw, 1933.
Loblaw Foundation, Toronto.
Toronto Western Hospital (gift in memory of T.B. Loblaw, member of the Board of Governors, 1926-1933).
Private Collection, Ontario.

Literature:

“Canvas by Great London Artist on Exhibit at Western Fair”, London Free Press, 14 Sept., 1937, reproduced.
G. Blair Laing, Memoirs of an Art Dealer, Toronto, 1979, page 186, for a reference to another version of Orchestra Chairs which Laing acquired from Mary Peel in California.
Victoria Baker, Paul Peel, A Retrospective, 1860 – 1892, London, 1986, page 167, plate 75, reproduced.

Exhibited:

Western Fair, London, September, 1937.
Paul Peel, A Retrospective, London Regional Art Gallery, London, September 6 – October 26, 1986, no. 75. Also shown in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Note:

Shortly before his untimely death at the age of thirty-one, Peel was reaching near legendary status in the art world as the first Canadian-born artist to achieve international recognition.

Orchestra Chairs, Peel’s last major painting, exemplifies the Victorian sentimentality of the era in a most charming and appealing manner.