Ernest Haskell

Ernest Haskell (June 30, 1876 - November 1, 1925) was an American artist and illustrator, internationally famous in his lifetime and remembered for his etchings, as well as engravings, pen-and-ink drawings, lithographs and watercolors. He was a pioneer in the field of theatrical posters.

Upon returning to New York from Paris in the late 1890s Haskell brought with him techniques he had learned in the field of advertising and theatrical posters. His portrait subjects included stage actresses Helen Hayes, Ethel Barrymore, Minnie Maddern Fiske (no relation to Haskell although the famous poster of Mrs. Fiske by him was printed by her cousin at Ottman Lithographic Co.) and Maude Adams. He was a member of the Players club on Gramercy Park in Manhattan during this period.

In 1903 he married Elizabeth Louise Foley, Haskell worked on etching and painting in the summers, and on trips to California, while maintaining portrait commissions and commercial work in the winters. In 1915 he was engaged by the newly formed Metro Pictures Corporation (later to become MGM films) as a poster artist. Ernest and Elizabeth had two children, Hildegarde and Eben. He was one of the artists who developed camouflage painting for the United States Army to disguise battleships and to use on soldiers' uniforms. His wife Elizabeth contracted influenza in the 1918 flu pandemic and died in New York City. Ernest took the children and went to live in northern California.

The exhibition became a memorial show at the Macbeth Gallery in New York City. Ernest was eulogized by fellow artists and friends John Marin and Childe Hassam among others. Royal Cortissoz called him "a brilliant artist". Henry McBride called him "the American etcher". and the New York Public Library. In 1981 there was a show called "Ernest Haskell: A Retrospective of Prints" at Associated American Artists on Fifth Avenue in New York City, curated by Sylvan Cole Jr. Ernest Haskell's work was included in an exhibition entitled "Three Centuries of American Art" at MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, in 1938.

His work is being re-discovered in the 21st century, one example of this being a major exhibition in 2011 at the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, "How He Was to His Talents, the Work of Ernest Haskell", researched and curated by Andrew Mellon Curatorial Fellow Katrina E. Greene. There are collections of Ernest Haskell works in many museums in the United States and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow University in Scotland.

As of 2017, the property on the coast of Maine, in Phippsburg, where Haskell did some of his later work has been added to the National Register of Historic Places in the United States.