Label Text:
The most reproduced of all of his lithographs, Haskell’s Ruined Pier appeared in two major magazines. This print eloquently communicated the critic Frank Weitenkampf’s message to American artists: it represented the “gather[ing] hope for the future” after an increase in the production of artist-lithographs during the previous decade.
Until his death in 1903, the expatriate American artist James McNeill Whistler had been the foremost lithographer outside of France; perhaps Haskell regarded this view of a New York pier as an homage to his predecessor’s London harbor scenes. Here, Haskell evokes the smoky atmosphere of Whistler’s lithotints, which the older artist created using diluted ink. Haskell used delicate crayon tones to suggest distant boats and equipment barely discernible through dense fog. Haskell’s thoughtful adaptation of Whistler’s methods was apparent to contemporary critics, who were convinced that lithography could finally take root on American soil.
KG, How He Was to His Talents exhibition, March 24, 2011-August 7, 2011
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1996.208 |
