Herman van der Haar specialised in painting cityscapes, landscapes, interiors, fishermen and figures. His first painting lessons he got from the Enschede genre painter L.J. Bruna. Afterwards he studied between 1889 and 1893 at the famous academy of Düsseldorf, taught by Heinrich Lauenstein. Van der Haar lived and worked in Utrecht, Kortenhoef, Veere and Wassenaar. His landscapes and cityscapes he painted chiefly in Noord-Holland and Twente.