HAIG, The Earl

George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig, 2nd Earl Haig, OBE, KStJ, DL, FRSA (1908-2009) was a painter, born in London, son of Field-Marshal Earl Haig whom he succeeded in 1928. After education at Stowe School and Oxford University, Earl Haig served in the Army in World War II, being a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany. In 1945–7 he attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, his teachers including William Johnstone and Claude Rogers; during the holidays he studied with Paul Maze. From 1945 Lord Haig had a series of one-man shows over several decades at the Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, as well as showing widely elsewhere in Britain and on the continent, latterly including Clarges Gallery and Gallery 10, London. Scottish Gallery gave him a seventieth birthday show in 1988. His work is in the collections of HM The Queen and other members of the royal family, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and further public collections.

Lord Haig was a member of the Scottish Arts Council and of the Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland and a trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland. As a landscape painter he was fond of simple, almost naïve images infused with a rich palette. In 2003, there was an exhibition of his oil and watercolour landscapes at Dean Gallery, Edinburgh. Lived in Bemersyde, Melrose, Scotland.