HERMAN H. HAAG

Haag, Herman H. (1871-1895). After J. T. Harwood's return to Salt Lake City from Califormia in 1885, he set up as an art teacher in the territory's capitol city and took on some pupils. At least one of these was Herman Haag who later established a creditable local reputation as a painter. Harwood was joined by Haag in 1888 or '89 in Europe as the fifth LDS missionary in Paris. Originally from Stuttgart, Germany, the LDS convert went all the way to Salt Lake City only to be advised by Harwood and others to study art in Paris. Harwood thought Haag exceptionally talented when that teenager took lessons from him in Utah, and now the youth proved it by taking a prize in composition at the Académie Julian, won "over 40 competitors" not even a year after his arrival in France. In this case, Haag selected a traditional and teligious subject, "John the Baptist Presenting Christ to the Multitude", to suit his basically conservative and pious nature. The artist returned to Utah in the early '90s, and was hired by the University of Utah art department in the period 1893-94. However, on October 12, 1895, the young man died just before his twenty-fourth birthday, leaving a hole in the U of U art program.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. ARTISTS OF UTAH. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999: 121.