Mauritz Frederick Hendrick De Haas (Dutch, American, 1832 to 1895)
One of the most famous 19th century marine and landscape painters, especially of Long Island, Mauritz Frederik Hendrik De Haas was born in Rotterdam, Holland December 12, 1832, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. He also studied at The Hague as a pupil of Louis Meyer, and then specialized in watercolor in London. In 1859, at the age of twenty-seven he immigrated to the United States and set up a studio in New York. In his adopted homeland, he first became known for his European views and then for his scenes painted along the Northeast Coast. Among the latter were views of Long Island: Orient, Montauk, Peconic, Westhampton, Bridgehampton and Southampton, as well as points along the Long Island Sound. He painted Civil War naval scenes for Admiral Farragut.
His brother, William Frederick De Haas, was also a distinguished artist. De Haas felt a special affinity for Long Island because it resembled his native Holland in its terrain and ever-changing effects of light and atmosphere. He was determined to capture the full range of these effects, from bright sunshine reflected on the rippling waves of Long Island Sound to the cool moonlight shining on the beach at Southampton. According to one contemporary critic, he succeeded: “His pencil is equally facile whether portraying a storm on the coast, moonlight effects at sea, or brilliancy of the sunset hour.” In painting moonlight scenes, the same source claimed, de Haas had “few equals.”
Information courtesy of Charlton Hall Galleries Inc., February, 2007