CARL HAAG (1820-1915) ‘The Interior of the Golden Gateway in the Temple Area of Jerusalem’

Carl Haag

Carl Haag was a Bavarian-born painter who became a naturalised British subject and was court painter to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Born in Erlangen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Haag was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg and at Munich, before practicing initially as an illustrator and painter in oils of portraits and architectural subjects. Haag moved to England in 1847, studying the watercolour techniques he would devote himself to from thereon. He was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours before becoming a full member in 1853. He also enjoyed the patronage of Queen Victoria. Between 1858 and 1860, he travelled to the Middle East, at first staying for more than a year in Cairo where he shared a studio with fellow artist Frederick Goodall. Later he journeyed to Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria before returning to Cairo. During this period, he made many sketches which he worked up into paintings after returning to London. He returned to Egypt in 1873–74 to gather inspiration for further Oriental paintings.

Haag was a prolific and important painter of Holy Land scenes. He gained a considerable reputation for his firmly drawn and meticulously elaborated paintings of Eastern subjects. Some of his depictions of the Middle East are in the Israel Museum’s collection. In 1903, he retired and towards the end of his life, Haag left England and returned to the newly united German Empire, where he died in Oberwesel in early 1915.