[Carl Haag]

Art Historical Context

This intimate carte-de-visite portrait captures Carl Haag, a renowned 19th-century painter known for his vivid watercolor landscapes and Orientalist scenes, in a studio photograph by the British team John and Charles Watkins during the 1860s. Measuring just 10.2 x 6.3 cm, this albumen silver print exemplifies the era's popular format—small, collectible cards exchanged like calling cards among Victorian elites, making art and celebrity accessible to a wider audience. The Watkins brothers were pioneering London photographers, masters of the wet-collodion process that produced the sharp, luminou...

About the Artist

John and Charles Watkins · 1840–1875

**John and Charles Watkins: Pioneers of Victorian Portrait Photography** John Watkins (1823–1874) and his younger brother Octavius Charles Watkins (1836–1882) were prominent British portrait photographers whose collaborative studio captured the luminaries of Victorian Britain.) Born in Raglan, Monmouthshire, Wales, John began his career around 1840, establishing a studio at 34 Parliament Street i...