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The imaginary villages of Prèfête Duffaut (1923-2012) are a reflection of his native Jacmel on the southern coast of Haiti. Duffaut connected with the coast and sea from an early age as he took over his father's job as a marine carpenter when he was 11. He began painting with what was at hand: shoe polish for paint and brushes made from roots of guinea herb. In 1948, he began his relationship with the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince, a cultural and artistic center run by American artist Dewitt Peters and the Haitian government, which served as a platform for him and many other Haitian artists. Soon becoming popular, his works were in a naive style and characterized by coastal villages surrounded by mountains and winding roads. Duffaut's villas are inhabited by little houses and miniature people, marking a contrast between the smallness of the human being and the magnitude of the mountains and surrounding nature. ‘I sleep in the mountains; it is to the mountains where I go to look and get inspired. That is what pleases me. To live in the country with the peasants,’ says Duffaut.