About the Artist

Earl Haig was born Kingston Hill, London 15 March 1918. Painter in oil and watercolour, abstracts. Son of Field Marshal Earl Haig. Succeeded his father to the title 1928. Educated Stowe School 1931-35 and Christ Church, Oxford 1936-9. Studied at Camberwell School of Art 1945-47 under Victor Pasmore, Gowring, Coldstream, Rogers and William Johnstone and privately with Paul Maze.

Lived in Melrose for many years. Began painting as a POW. Influenced by Morandi. “The border landscapes are in an important sense the foundation of Haig’s painting. Border atmosphere and light taught him, of necessity, a care for interval, the “space between” which is as vital to painting as it is to handwriting… it is also in the Border landscapes that we can see best the working of the duel aspects just described… “only the land remains” and its rhythms, intervals, distances and silences have so far possessed him as to lead instinctively to a visual equivalent” (Douglas Hall).

Past member of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland and Trustee, NGS. Awarded OBE 1966.

Exhibited RSA regularly from 1950, also GI(4) & AAS(1), from Bemersyde, Melrose, Roxburghshire. Represented SNGMA, Abbot Hall (Kendal), City of Edinburgh collection, Imperial War Museum, SAC, Royal Collection, SNPG (self portrait), Hunterian AG (Glasgow), Hawick AG, Aberdeen AG.

"Dictionary of Scottish Art & Architecture" Peter J M McEwan