Préfète Duffaut

Préfète Duffaut (1 January 1923 – 6 October 2012)^[1] was a Haitian painter.

Born in Cyvadier, Sud-Est, near the seaport of Jacmel, where he lived and worked.^{[citation needed]} The painter Pauleus Vital (1918–1984) was Duffaut's half-brother, the painter Jean Charles Duffaut (*1970) is his son. Duffaut's mother died when he was two years old, and he was mostly raised by his father, a sailboat builder in Jacmel.^[2]

In 1944, he introduced himself to Rigaud Benoit who was then visiting Jacmel as a talent scout fro the recently created Centre d'Art of Port-au-Prince.^[2] In 1948, encouraged by Bill Kraus - an American journalist and artist living in Haiti, Duffaut joined the Centre d'Art in the Haitian capital.^[2][3] There began working alongside important Haitian artists such as Gesner Abelard and Hector Hyppolite. Later, he joined the Galerie Issa, where he worked for many years.^[4]

In 1951, Duffaut was one of several artists invited to paint murals in the interior of the Cathedral of Sainte Trinité (largely destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake) in Port-au-Prince; his works there were titled "The Temptation of Christ" and "The Processional Road" (also referred to as the "Procession of the Crossing Guard").

Sometimes referred to as the foremost "dreamer" of the Haitian artists in modern times^[5], Duffaut is above all a naïve painter. His earlier works portray highly precise depictions of his hometown. Later, he began shifting towards his own style, described as both sophisticated, fantastic and highly imaginative.^[2] He is known for painting in the vernacular style and his work typically consists of fantastical "imaginary cities" (villes imaginaires), that often contain coastal elements with boats. The cityscapes are strongly influenced by the coastal city of Jacmel. Another recurrent theme, especially in earlier works, is imagery associated with Vodou.^[5]

Duffaut's work has been exhibited and collected widely outside of Haiti.^[6][7][8] His body of paintings continues to be a strong influence on contemporary Haitian artists such as Prince Luc (Luckner Candio).

• Balutansky, Kathleen; Sourieau, Marie-Agnes (2004). Ecrire en Pays Assiege Haiti Writing Under Siege in. New York, NY: Rodopi. p. 433. ISBN 978-90-420-1753-5.
• Schutt-Ainé, Patricia (1994). Haiti: A Basic Reference Book. Miami, Florida: Librairie Au Service de la Culture. p. 111. ISBN 0-9638599-0-0.
• Stebich, Ute (1979). Haitian Art. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8109-1053-9. - Exhibition catalogue of Haitian Art show at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, 09/02 to 11/05, 1978
• Michel, Claudine; Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick (1979). Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture: Invisible Powers. Basingstoke, Hampshire UK: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4039-7162-3.

• Works of Préfète Duffaut in the Zander Collection
• Le peintre Préfète Duffaut et la genèse de son oeuvre - Article about the oevre of Duffaut on Caraïb Express Blog by Marie Flore Domond. (French text)
• Préfète Duffaut: piété et urbanisme imaginaire - Excerpt of a 2007 documentary directed by Arnold Antonin. (French and Haitian Creole language)
• Michel Monnin on Préfète Duffaut (French text)
• A History of Haitian Art - Posted on naderhaitianart.com
• Documentary by Arnold Antonin - Préfète Duffaut: Piété et urbanisme imaginaire^{[permanent dead link‍]}