Hyppolite, Hector

Hector Hyppolite (1894–1948) was a Haitian painter. Considered as the "Grand Maître of Haitian Art" Born in Saint-Marc, Hyppolite was a third generation Vodou priest, or oungan. He also made shoes and painted houses before taking up fine art painting, which he did untrained. Hyppolite spent five years outside of Haiti from 1915 to 1920. His travels abroad included trips to New York and Cuba. Although he later claimed those years had been spent in Africa, such as Dahomey and Ethiopia, scholars regard that as more likely an instance of promotional myth-making than factual. Hyppolite's talent as an artist was noticed by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin, who brought him to Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in 1946. There, Hyppolite worked in the studio run by Dewitt Peters, a water-colorist and schoolteacher from the United States who had come to Haiti to teach the English language as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. In 1944, Peters opened an art center in the capital that provided free materials. Before arriving at the Centre d'Art Hyppolite had painted upon cardboard using chicken feathers and sold to visiting United States Marines because he owned no brushes. Peters had first noticed Hyppolite...