Mauritz de Haas

Show notes

Alongside Mauritz Frederik Hendrik de Haas, his name has been spelled in various ways. Mauritz de Haas was the youngest of five children born to Jan and Marie Petronella de Haas. His siblings included Jan, a ship engineer in the Dutch Navy, Jacques, a violinist and composer, William F., a landscape painter, as well as Marie Petronella and Mauritz. Showing an early interest in seafaring, he received painting lessons from Louis Meijer, a renowned marine painter, after his father's early demise.
De Haas pursued his artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, studying under Johannes Bosboom. He spent a year in London, studying contemporary English watercolor painting.
De Haas focused primarily on marine painting from an early stage. He found inspiration for his paintings during numerous travels along the coast and aboard ships, including journeys to the English Channel, the North Coast of England and Scotland, as well as the French Atlantic coast and the island of Jersey. In 1858, he also embarked on a voyage with the British frigate Evertsen to the American East Coast.
In 1856, Dutch Queen Sophie of Württemberg acquired de Haas' painting "Dutch fishing Boats", and a year later, he was appointed as a painter of the Dutch Navy. In 1859, he
married the young Englishwoman Catharine A. Millar, with whom he had three children – Marie Petronella, Willemina F., and Mauritz Frederick Hendrick Junior, who also became a painter.
Encouraged by the American Chargé d'Affaires in The Hague, August Belmont, de Haas relocated to the United States to New York City in 1859, where he remained until his death. After the move, he rented a studio in New York and quickly established himself as a prominent painter, receiving significant commissions. During the Civil War, he painted several ship scenes commissioned by Admiral David Glasgow Farragut. In 1862, he was elected as an associate member of the National Academy Museum and School, and in 1867, as a full member. He exhibited his watercolors annually at the Academy and was one of the founders of the A...