Label Text: In 1897 Haskell traveled to Paris for two years of study after a successful debut as an illustrator and poster designer in New York. Dissatisfied with the Académie Julian, he decided to develop his aesthetic taste by scrutinizing artworks made by those he considered modern masters of drawing. At some time during this period, Haskell created The Spinet, in which he emulated the singular aesthetic of the English graphic artist Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley’s exquisitely minimal compositions in pure black and white appealed to the young student eager to introduce precision into his pen-and-ink illustrations. Here, Haskell used sensuous lines to depict a young woman playing a small piano.
Haskell had the drawing framed in Paris before he exhibited it in his first solo exhibition at the Pratt Institute in 1899. After reviewing the more than two hundred drawings, paintings, and prints Haskell had brought back from Paris, a Brooklyn critic reserved highest praise for The Spinet, noting its “power and expression in delicate lines.”
KG, How He Was to His Talents exhibition, March 24, 2011-August 7, 2011
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