Maurits Frederik Hendrik de Haas was a student of the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam and of J.H.L. Meijer. He mainly painted seascapes, was appointed painter of the Dutch navy in 1857 and left for New York in 1859. He also made etchings and lithographs. In 1880 he returned to the Netherlands, and from about 1882 he lived again in New York. He also collaborated with his brother Willem F. de Haas and was an employee of S.Th. Voorn Boers (lithography).