Putnam patriot., 1926-12-03

tIhe following from the New | 1ork Sun" will be of interest Co the people of Woodstock for Mr. Haskell was born in West Woodstock on the place now occupied by Bowne Brothers. His boyhood days were spent in the town and he made occasional visits 10 Woodstock His tragic death was deeply felt by his Woodstock friends.)
 A memorial exhibition of the works of the late Ernest Haskell who met death last year in an automobile aeci- dent has been arranged by his friends and Is now open to the public in the Macbeth Galleries.
 The real tragedy in Ernest Haskells death IS concerned with the fact that he was steadily improving in his art. Although nearly 50 he seemed to be continually unfolding new phases of himself and each new phase seemed upon a higher plane than what had gone before.
 During the last ten years some spe- eiai impetus appeared to the outsider to nave entered into him, and there was an increased energy. an increased enths sSiasm, and even an increased youthfulness. He always had the gift for friendship and never lacked ap- ureciatiou. but it seemed to his ad- mirers that at the moment of his death he was just upon the point of an immense broadening iu style.
 Had Skilled Hand
 His great gift was workmanship This. apparently, was instinctye n him, No other eteher that America has yet produced equalled him Tn skill of hand. Skill of hand is almost an essential in etching. The very word has come Co mean, to the public mind. a clear and unaeeidental precision The babbled poetry that has won ac eeptanee in other forms of art, not because babbling in itself is admirable but because poetry at all costs we must have, has not been permitted in etching. The great Europeans. far, have all had skill of hand and a firm touch.
 IL is perhaps small item Co cite in such an argument. but my admiration for Haskell, the workman. was con firmed upon the occasion of the first exhibition in which l began to esteem his etehings think about ten years ago-when saw the way ir which he regarded his tools The show taok place in the Anderson Galleries and Haskell who. like Joseph Pen nell. was teacher and loved to talk about his craft, arranged glass ease full Of the implements of his trade. the better to explain the mysteries of Wnich they were capable. to his eheE- teie; and these tools were in such i'm pereable condition and so beautifully and lovingly grouped that they pro rded a wonderful lesson in abstract art. You know the old saying: Judge a workman by his tools and did.
 An Awakening Comes
 l. was. as I say. about ten years ago that first began Co respect Haskell the eteher Before that had only been mildly interested His draw ingE and etchings of big trees in the Californian valleys, and the wind blasted pines that fringe the coast. pleased the public sufficiently Co in- sure the artist a living but to me seemed careful rather than inspired But all al once something looseRed in the man. Perhaps 1t was that. intel lectually. Haskell saw that he had t0 loosen. Muirhead Bone, in England. was calling attention once again to the grandeurs of style that were pos sible 10 an etcher, and Ernest Haskell was not the man to sit down under an Imputation that there were cer- tain things an American couldn't do. l He looked at landscape with new eyes, retained his clever sense of ma nipulation, and made a distinct step forward.
 Not but that there is sufficient data upon which to build the theory that this artist always had had fiexibiity had he cared to use it. The poster | portrait of Minnie Maddern Fiske is i one item. There is something in that portrait that is beyond mere draw ing. It is wistful; faery; not so much Mrs. Fiske of the flesh as a memory t evoked from her acting. And there are other figure Autographs of the same suggestive quality IL is a pity Haskell didn't find early in life q public capable of appreeiating the emotional side of art, but he realized perfectly during his later years the direction in which his true chance lay Hence the very great shock to his friends when his career was cut short.