Francis Haskell

Francis Haskell (* April 7, 1928; † January 18, 2000 in Oxford ) was a British art historian, and one who was particularly the social history of art.

Haskell studied, among others, at King's College in Cambridge history. There he was taught the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner. From 1962 to 1967 he was librarian of the Fine Arts Faculty. In 1963 he published his groundbreaking study Patrons and Painters over the patronage of the Baroque era. In 1967 he was appointed to the University of Oxford, where he became the successor of Edgar Wind. At Oxford he devoted his research primarily the French Academy 19th century art. On this subject appeared in 1976 his equally groundbreaking study Rediscoveries in Art 1981 he published along with Nicholas Penny, the book button and the Antique. Haskell taught and researched further in Oxford, where he became Professor Emeritus in 1995. Haskell was married to the Russian art historian Larissa Salmina. His colleague Nicholas Penny described him as "one of the most original art historians of the 20th century", and Charles Hope called him "one of the most important of his time".

Works

• History and its images, Munich 1999, ISBN 3406391877
• Painters and contractors. Art and Society in the Italian Baroque. Cologne 1996.
• Taste and the Antique. ISBN 0-300-02641-2