[2] He was cited along with Jenaro Perez Villaamil and Aureliano de Beruete as one of the three Spanish grand masters of landscape painting, the latter of which was his pupil.

[4] The family moved to Spain, settling in Málaga in 1835, where Haes studied with the Neoclassical portrait painter Luis de la Cruz y Ríos [es].

[5] After returning to Spain, he entered the National Exhibition of Fine Arts, winning a third place medal for landscapes created around Brussels.

Haes took his students with him to paint in the countryside; under his teaching the "painters proliferated and took advantage of the new railway system to explore the furthest corners of the nation's topography.

[4] Following the ideals of an academic, Haes believed that the end result of art should be the truth found in the imitation of nature, the source of all beauty.

Leaving behind Romanticism, he was early to embrace the En plein air style,[12] working from outdoor preparatory sketches which were completed within a workshop.

In terms of technique, his strokes have Impressionists connotations, though he lacks the treatment of light and color, and moves away from the spontaneity and immediacy of this art movement.