Francis Haskell


Francis James Herbert Haskell was an English art historian, whose writings placed emphasis on the social history of art. He wrote one of the first and most influential patronage studies, Patrons and Painters.

Early life and education

Haskell was born on 7 April 1928. He was the son of Arnold Haskell, an influential ballet critic and writer. He read history at King's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was a member of the semi-secretive Cambridge Apostles society, a debating club largely reserved for the brightest students.

Academic career

In 1954, Haskell was elected a fellow of the King's College, Cambridge. Later he was Professor of Art History at Oxford from 1967 until his retirement in 1995; the position made him, ex officio a Visitor—that is, a trustee—of the Ashmolean Museum. He was a trustee of the Wallace Collection, 1976–1997. In 1976 Haskell, who often served on advisory committees for museum loan exhibitions, joined the National Art Collections Fund committee and became one of its most vocal members, defending the purchase of Poussin's Rebecca and Eliezar for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
His interest in the circumstances in which paintings were displayed, which reflected the esteem in which they were held and influenced the way they were perceived runs as a leitmotiv through his published work, beginning with an article jointly written with Michael Levey in Arte Veneta, 1958, that was devoted to art exhibitions in eighteenth-century Venice.

Personal life

His wife, Larissa, had been a curator at the Hermitage Museum.

Honours

In 1971, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. He was awarded the Serena medal for Italian studies by the British Academy in 1985.

Selected bibliography