Préfète Duffaut

Biography

Born in Jacmel, Préfète Duffaut began as a boatbuilder before discovering painting through the Centre d'Art in 1946. He created the now-legendary villes imaginaires-spiralling dream-cities rising from coastal mountains, crisscrossed with bridges and tiny pilgrims. His visionary landscapes suggest both biblical Jerusalem and Jacmel reborn, symbols of ascent and redemption. Duffaut also painted murals for the Cathedral of Sainte-Trinité in Port-au-Prince, destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. He died in 2012, revered as Haiti's city-builder of the imagination