Louis Haghe

Who was Louis Haghe?

Louis Haghe was a lithographer and watercolour artist.

His father and grandfather had practised as architects. Training in his teens in watercolour painting, he found work in the relatively new art of lithography when the first press was set up in Tournai. He visited England to find work, and settled there permanently in 1823.

Together with William Day, around 1830 he formed the partnership Day & Haghe, which became the most famous early Victorian firm of lithographic printing in London.

Day and Haghe created and printed lithographs dealing with a wide range of subjects, such as hunting scenes, architecture, topographical views and genre depictions. They pioneered the new techniques for chromolithography as well as hand-tinted lithographs. After William's death in 1845, the firm became known as 'Day & Son'. They were pioneers in developing the medium of the lithograph printed in colours.

In 1838, Day and Haghe were appointed 'Lithographers to the Queen'. Possibly his most ambitious project was providing 250 images for David Roberts' The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia printed between 1842–9.