| Notes |
- Artist and Illustrator, known as "Haskell" he lived but a few years in Charleston before moving to New York. He studied at the Corcoran Art School in Washington and under Paul Laurens of Paris who was considered one of the greatest teachers of art of his time. Haskell won his fame as a magazine illustrator and as a portrait painter of Ziegfeld show girls. Several of his portraits once hung in the office of Florence Zeigfeld and many of his paintings were reproduced and used as covers of the Saturday Evening Post, Redbook, McCall's, Pictorial Review, as well as many others. The Saturday Evening Post used his portraits for covers on thirty two occasions.
He first married Ida Breman who with her had three children. After she died he remarried Frances Starr an actress and after ten years of marriage she divorced him for non-support.
Coffin's avowed purpose was to draw correctly and to combine beautiful coloring with an easy technique. Much of his painting glorified the American girl, particularly the show girl. The St. Petersburg Times noted on April 18, 1932 of the arrival of Haskell Coffin, reporting he was known the world over for his paintings and portraits.
Near the end of his life he suffered from melancholia, a mood disorder and because of this he was hospitalized at St. Anthony's hospital in St. Petersburg from April 17, 1941 until on the day of his death when he leaped to his death from the third floor and was killed.
Reference
Find-a-Grave: findagrave.com
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The Washington Post
May 31, 1941
Haskell Coffin, 63, formerly highly paid artist and resident of Washington, leaped to his death from the third floor of a St. Petersburg, Fla. hospital yesterday. He was under treatment for melancholia, the Associated Press said. His death was termed a suicide by the St. Petersburg coroner.
Coffin was born in Charleston, S.C., and moved to Washington with his parents as a child. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art.
Coffin was the former husband of Frances Starr, the actress, who appeared at the National Theater recently in "Claudia." She later married the late R. Golden Donalson, Washington banker.
Well known as an artist, Coffin had done many covers for such high priced magazines as Red Book and Cosmopolitan. His full name was William Haskell Coffin.
A sister, Mrs. Wallace A. Beatty, of Washington survives. Also surviving are three sons, Haskell and Martin, both of New York, and Amboy, of Atlanta Ga.; and a brother, Frank Trenholm Coffin of New York.
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1878 - 1941 (62 years)
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