George Haité

George Haité was born in Bexley, Kent. He was the son of designer George Haité. Haité was self-taught, beginning to paint at age 16. He painted in both oils and watercolours and designed wallpapers, leaded glass and metal work.

In 1873 he settled in London to concentrate on his design work, but from 1883 began exhibiting at the Royal Academy. He was also a member of the Royal Institute and the Royal Society of British Artists. Between 1883 and 1887, Haité was the President of the Langham Sketching Club and in 1908 he became the President of the London Sketch Club.

Alongside his prestigious reputation as an oil painter and watercolourist, Haité also made a name for himself as an illustrator. In 1891 he designed the cover for a new London magazine The Strand. That year The Strand would be the first to publish A Scandal in Bohemia, a story by Arthur Conan Doyle about the detective Sherlock Holmes.  Haite’s illustration for The Strand’s front cover has since been tied to Conan Doyle’s work, and has been used in several publications of Sherlock Holmes tales.

As an illustrator Haite brushed paths with many of the periods famous literary figures. He was the president of the elite literary dinning club The Sette of Odd Volumes and is known to have socialised with many prominent authors, including John Tenniel, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw and Bram Stoker, along with the illustrators Aubrey Beardsley and John Hassall.