Self-portrait of the artist

V.I. Hau was born in the city of Revel (now Tallinn), in the family of the German landscape painter and theater designer Johann Hau. He received his first artistic skills from the court painter Karl von Kügelchen.
He began his career as a watercolor painter at the age of 16 with a well-executed portrait of the navigator F.P. Litke, who recommended the prodigy to Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. Real success fell to his lot when, in 1832, at the age of sixteen, he had the opportunity to paint portraits of the Grand Duchesses - the daughters of the emperor Nicholas I.
Vladimir's brother Eduard Hau (1807-1877), also a watercolor painter, is known mainly for his images of the interiors of the Winter Palace.