Inspection of the Streets, 1948

Obin composed scenes of daily life in Cap-Haïtien, on the north coast of Haiti, using elegant geometries, sunstruck colors, and telling details. In this painting, street sweepers wear blue and their hats bear the initials SSP, indicating that they’re part of an official sanitation department. The boss, on horseback, wears an ochre uniform that blends with the colonial architecture in the background. Obin wrote “Ti Coyo faisant inspection” (Ti Coyo inspecting) at the bottom. Ti Coyo was probably known to everyone on F Street and beyond and is perhaps being satirized here as a snooty or cunning figure rather than a fearsome authority.