LOUISIANE SAINT FLEURANT

(1924- )

Haiti’s most important female artist, born in Petit Trou de Nippes, found her calling late in life. She was age 50 when she came to Soissons la Montagne to cook for the Saint Soleil group. Instead she became an esteemed painter, leaving eventually in 1978, becoming a cook again and painting on the side. Women and children, houses, birds and animals are her preferred subjects. Flat figures and lack of perspective give her paintings a child-like charm. Saint Fleurant’s sense of color and design establish her as a naive painter with few peers. Her other major contributions to Haitian art are two sons - the late Stivenson Magloire and Ramphis Magloire, neither of whom paints in a style like their mother.