Préfète Duffaut is a major figure in Haitian
painting. Born on 1 st January 1923 in Jacmel, he
develops an imaginary city of style that earned him national and international
recognition.
During his youth he worked with his father on boat building
sites. Shortly after the Art Center opened in 1944, DeWitt Peters,
intrigued by his drawings, asked Rigaud Benoît to meet him in Jacmel. He
was selected with the artists Castera Bazile, Philomé Obin, Rigaud Benoît and
Wilson Bigaud, to paint the frescoes of the Episcopal Cathedral of Sainte-Trinité destroyed
during the earthquake of January 12, 2010.
Préfète Duffaut says that his vocation as a painter was
inspired by a vision of the virgin. This one would have appeared to him at
the top of a mountain, ordering him to paint his city. In the 1960s,
Préfète Duffaut moved with his family to the Carrefour-Feuilles neighborhood in
Port-au-Prince. He made the imaginary city his favorite subject and he also
painted paintings of mystical inspiration.
In more than 70 years of career, the artist has produced an
immense work, exhibited in galleries and museums around the world including the
Musée du College Saint-Pierre in Port-au-Prince, the Grand Palais in Paris, the
Davenport Museum , the Waterloo Museum and the MoMa of New York.
Préfète Duffaut died on October 6, 2012 at the age of 89.
