| Prefete Duffaut
Prefete Duffaut was born in 1923 in Jacmel, on the south coast of Haiti. He passed away on October 6th, 2012.
Brought up by an unkind stepmother, Duffaut withdrew into himself and escaped to an ideal world on paper. His little sketches and paintings helped him to overcome periods of despair. By age twelve, he worked as a shipwright like his father. He had to cross the seemingly endless and imposing mountains to get to the coastal ciies to work. After his marriage, Duffaut resettled in Jacmel, where he decorated his small house with geometric designs of stars, flags,and vases filled with flowers. He was on a job hunt in Picmi on La Gonave when the Virgin appeared to him in a dream, telling him to decorate the church walls with her image. Duffaut did as he was told, to the joy of the villagers. After he returned to Jacmel, American friends of DeWitt Peters made his work known through photographs of his wall paintings. His association with the Centre d'Art then began.
He rarely paints other subjects than the Virgin (for Duffaut a representation of Erzulie), pictures of geometric designs, and imaginative constructions of mountains dotted with little houses, with the sea in the distance. Even his two murals for Holy Trinity Cathedral - "The Temptation of Christ" and "The Processional Road" - include these scenes. However, each painting is packed with didactic meaning expressing his moral, philosophical, and religious ideas.
From Haitian Art by Ute Stebich, 1978. |
Ville de Ninive
Prefete Duffaut (Jacmel, Haiti, b. 1923)
Oil on board (25 1/2" x 38"), October 6, 1955
Price on Request
SOLD 1/08 |
Harbor Scene
Prefete Duffaut (Jacmel, Haiti, b. 1923)
Oil on board (16" x 20"), c.1970
Price on Request (framed)
SOLD 4/11 |
