(1830–1880)
Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, William Frederick De Haas studied there at the Academy of Fine Arts, and in The Hague with Johannes Bosboom, a Dutch church interior painter. De Haas immigrated to the United States in 1854 and settled in New York City. His younger brother, Mauritz Frederick Hendrick De Haas arrived in the United States five years later and established a wide audience for his marine paintings. Perhaps inspired by the success of his brother, William took a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building, where he began exhibiting his work. The Tenth Street Studio Building was famed for its occupants’ impact on the local and national cultural scene and was described as “the catalyst most responsible for transforming Greenwich Village into a hub for the visual arts.”[1]
De Haas traveled frequently throughout the Hudson River Valley, New England, and Canada, painting luminist coastal scenes until his death in 1880 on the Azores Islands. De Haas and his brother felt a special affinity for Long Island, New York, which resembled their native Holland in terrain and changing effects of light and atmosphere.
De Haas exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art Association from 1867 until 1880. His work can be found mainly in private collections, but he is also represented in the following public collections: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Cortland Free Library, Wells College, New York; and the Akron Art Museum, Ohio.
[1] http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/information/Greenwich_Village/body_greenwich_village.html.