Arnold Lionel Haskell (1903 - 1980)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Arnold Lionel Haskell was a British ballet critic who was a joint founder of the Camargo Society in 1930. In 1934 he published the popular book Balletomania. He was also influential in the development of the Royal Ballet School, becoming the institution’s director in 1946. He died at his home in Bath in 1980.

Haskell was also an art collector, acquiring 18th and 19th century sculpture and drawings as well as work by contemporaries like Epstein. He was an early champion of this artist, in 1931 publishing ‘The Sculptor Speaks; Jacob Epstein to Arnold L. Haskell’, a series of conversations on art between the two men. Haskell’s son, Francis (1928-2000), shared his interest in art and became Professor of the History of Art at Oxford University.