Biography

Préfète Duffaut was born in Jacmel on January 1, 1923. A taciturn, withdrawn child, he lived an unhappy childhood and drawing was his only means of expression. At twelve, he worked as a carpenter with his father and helped him build sailboats in Jacmel. He tells how the Virgin Mary appeared to him in a dream on the island of Gonave and leads him to sculpt a decorative piece for the chapel dedicated to her. In 1944, he presented himself to Rigaud Benoit visiting Jacmel in search of new talent for the art center.

The works are framed with 22k gold frames.

He paints imaginary cities in a sophisticated or more fantastic way depending on the canvases where his unbridled imagination plays with the laws of gravity.

In 1948, encouraged by an American living in Haiti, Bill Krauss, he created such an infernal machine. He made frescoes of the Sainte Trinite cathedral of Port au Prince. Poet and mystical man, he is a dreamlike painter describing his hopes and his beliefs. Deceased, his coffin, which he had painted himself according to his style, was exhibited during the exhibition “Haiti, two centuries of artistic creation”, at the Grand Palais in Paris between November 2014 and February 2015.