Portrait of Mary Haskell
A pencil portrait of the woman who paid for everything: Mary Haskell, the Boston schoolmistress who funded Kahlil Gibran's years of art study in Paris and remained his patron, editor and closest correspondent for twenty-seven years. She kept the sheet, annotated it in her own hand, and gave it to Telfair Museums in Savannah in 1950, where it is numbered 1950.8.94.b.
- 1910
- Pencil on wove paper
- Telfair MuseumsSavannah, Georgia, United States
About Kahlil Gibran
What the drawing shows
A woman's head and shoulders fill the upper half of a large sheet. Her hair is swept up and back off the forehead into a soft mass, drawn with dense diagonal strokes that are darkest at the top and left bare in a curving highlight through the middle. A few loose strands come down at the temple.
She looks out and very slightly to her left. The eye on the viewer's left is fully drawn — iris, pupil, a firm dark line along the upper lid — while the eye on the shaded side is a soft smudge with no iris in it.
The shading gathers on the cheek and jaw on the viewer's right, worked in fine diagonal strokes that define the jawline without any outline. The lips are closed, with a dark line between them and a shadow at the corner.
Below the chin the drawing gives out. The neck is shaded on one side, two soft lines suggest the neckline of a blouse, and then the paper is bare: no shoulders, no hands, no background, and the lower half of the sheet left empty.
Her own hand on the sheet
The same line of pencil writing appears twice at the lower right, one above the other: "Sketch of M.E.H. by K.G. 1910". The initials are hers and his — Mary Elizabeth Haskell, Kahlil Gibran. At the lower left, fainter still, her name is written out: Mary E. Haskell.
Writing in the third person about both people means the notes are not the artist's signature. The companion sheet, Kahlil Gibran's self-portrait of the same year, carries a note in the same manner: "Self-Sketch by Kahlil Gibran ab. 1910".
Who Mary Haskell was
Mary Haskell ran an elite girls' school outside Boston. She was ten years older than Kahlil Gibran, and she walked into his first exhibition at Fred Holland Day's studio in 1904. For the next twenty-seven years she was his patron, editor and first reader.
She paid for the Paris training. Her papers record that she supported his travels in Europe between 1908 and 1911, the years he spent at the Académie Julian and then in the studio of Pierre Marcel-Béronneau. Those papers — his letters to her, her diaries, the sketches he sent — are at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, filed under the name of the Savannah businessman Jacob Florance Minis, whom she married in 1926.
After Kahlil Gibran's death in 1931 she was a principal heir. She shipped his studio contents home to Bsharri and gave the Metropolitan Museum of Art five sheets in 1932. In 1950 she gave Telfair Museums nearly a hundred works, which is why the largest public collection of his art in the United States is in Savannah.
One accession number, two sheets
Telfair Museums numbers this drawing 1950.8.94.b and the self-portrait 1950.8.94.a. Both are dated 1910, both are pencil on wove paper, and both are drawn as a head on an otherwise empty sheet.
Where either was drawn is not recorded. Kahlil Gibran's Paris years ran from 1908 to 1910 and he was back in the United States by 1911, so the year alone does not settle the city, and neither the museum record nor the sheets name one.
Close reading
Reading the work, detail by detail
The portrait is drawn the same way as its companion self-portrait: a finished head in the upper half of a large sheet, a neck in outline, and bare paper below. Mary Haskell kept it and wrote on it, twice at the lower right and once, faintly, at the lower left. The close views end on those notes.
1.The lit eye is drawn, the shaded one is a smudge
The eye on the viewer's left is fully worked, with an iris, a pupil and a firm dark line along the upper lid. The other eye is a soft smudge of shadow with no iris. She looks out and very slightly to her own left.
2.The hair is swept up off the forehead
The hair is taken up and back off the forehead into a soft mass. Dense diagonal strokes build it, darkest along the top, and a curving band of bare paper is left through the middle for the light. A few loose strands come down at the temple.
3.Fine diagonal strokes cut the jaw
The shading gathers on the cheek and jaw on the viewer's right, worked in fine diagonal strokes. There is no outline round the jaw: the edge exists only where the shading stops. The same method models the hollow beneath the cheekbone.
4.The mouth is closed on a single line
The lips are closed, with a dark line between them and a shadow at one corner. Above them the nostrils are indicated with a little shading and no outline. The chin itself is left almost bare.
5.Two soft lines stand for a blouse
The neck is shaded on one side and left open on the other. Two soft lines indicate the neckline of a blouse, and past them the paper is bare. No shoulders, sleeves or hands are drawn.
6.The same note, written twice
The same line appears twice, one above the other: Sketch of M.E.H. by K.G. 1910. The initials are hers and his, Mary Elizabeth Haskell and Kahlil Gibran. Writing about both people in the third person makes the notes an owner's, not the artist's.
7.Her name is written at the lower left
At the lower left, fainter than the notes on the other side, the name is written out: Mary E. Haskell. It confirms the initials used at the lower right. The hand appears to be the same.
Timeline
1904
Mary Haskell sees Kahlil Gibran's first exhibition of paintings at Fred Holland Day's Boston studio and becomes his patron.
1908–1910
She pays for his art training in Paris, at the Académie Julian and then in the studio of Pierre Marcel-Béronneau.
1910
The portrait is drawn, and annotated in pencil as a sketch of M.E.H. by K.G.
1926
She marries Jacob Florance Minis of Savannah and becomes Mary Haskell Minis.
1932
A year after Kahlil Gibran's death she gives five of his sheets to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1950
She gives nearly a hundred works by Kahlil Gibran to Telfair Museums in Savannah; this sheet enters as 1950.8.94.b.
Where to see it
Telfair Museums
Savannah, Georgia, United States
A public viewing address has not yet been confirmed for this holding.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Mary Haskell?
The Boston schoolmistress who paid for Kahlil Gibran's art training and supported him for twenty-seven years. She ran an elite girls' school outside Boston, was ten years his senior, and saw his first exhibition in 1904. Her papers record that she funded his European travels from 1908 to 1911.
Where is Kahlil Gibran's portrait of Mary Haskell?
Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, object number 1950.8.94.b. She gave it to the museum herself, as Mary Haskell Minis, in the 1950 gift of nearly a hundred of his works.
What is written on the drawing?
"Sketch of M.E.H. by K.G. 1910", in pencil at the lower right and repeated just below it, with her name written faintly at the lower left as Mary E. Haskell. The third-person wording means the notes are an owner's, not the artist's signature.
Is this drawing part of a pair?
Yes. It shares an accession number with Kahlil Gibran's 1910 self-portrait, which Telfair Museums numbers 1950.8.94.a. Both are pencil on wove paper, both are dated 1910, and both are annotated in the same hand.
Was the portrait drawn in Paris?
Not established. His Paris years ran from 1908 to 1910 and he was back in the United States by 1911, and no record names the place where either of the two sheets was drawn.
Can the image be reproduced freely?
Yes. Kahlil Gibran died in April 1931, which ended the European Union term at the close of 2001 and placed his unpublished work in the United States public domain in 2002. Wikimedia Commons hosts the reproduction as a faithful photograph of a two-dimensional public-domain work.
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References
The sources below include collection records, catalogues, scholarly research, and primary materials that informed this page. They document Portrait of Mary Haskell, its making, and its place in cultural history.
1Kahlil Gibran Collection — Telfair Museums online collection
WebsiteTelfair Museums, Savannah, GeorgiaUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Portrait of Mary Haskell page.
2Minis Family Papers, 1739–1948 (collection 02725), Southern Historical Collection
ArchiveWilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUsed forThe Mary Haskell archive and its record of her support for the European travels of 1908 to 1911.
3The Art of Kahlil Gibran — Telfair Museums exhibition, 2010–11
WebsiteTelfair Museums, Savannah, GeorgiaUsed forFor the 1904 exhibition and the 1950 gift.
4Kahlil Gibran, Towards the Infinite (Kamila Gibran, mother of the artist), 32.45.4 — The Metropolitan Museum of Art collection record
WebsiteThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkUsed forFor the 1932 gift of five sheets to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
5Gibran: Man & Poet — the Kahlil Gibran Collective
WebsiteThe Kahlil Gibran CollectiveUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Portrait of Mary Haskell page.
These references provide the documented foundation for this work's history and interpretation. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.
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