Préfète Duffaut was born in Jacmel on January 1, 1923. As a child he was taciturn and introverted . He lived an unhappy childhood and worked with his father as a carpenter in assisting him as a sailboat builder in Jacmel.

He began to draw on his own several months after the opening of the Centre d´Art in Port-au-Prince in 1944 when Rigaud Benoit visited Jacmel as a talent scout for the Art Center.

He is world renowned for his mountainous landscapes with serpentine roads and his crowded street scenes.

” An essentially naive painter, Duffaut started out doing highly precise paintings of his hometown. He then shifted toward a style at times sophisticated, at times fantastic, depending on the painting, allowing his unbridled imagination to tinker with the laws of gravity. “

( Peintures Haitiennes, Marie-José Nadal & Gérald Bloncourt))

“ A Master of popular painting in the 1940’s , Duffaut specifically depicts urban life in a fantastic style”

(Peintres Haitiens, Gérald Alexis)