A Gallery of Haitian Art
SINCE 1974

This is a print by Robel Paris, one of the very few non-Haitians to exhibit at the legendary Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince, where she also taught. She had a one-woman show there in February 1952. Biographical information on her is scarce but she seems to have been born Rosabelle Paris in the United States on May 10. 1905. She was employed by the American military in Hawaii, painting camouflage onto vehicles, and was close enough to Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to hear the explosions and see the flames. By 1951 she was in Haiti teaching painting at the Centre D'Art and in 1955 illustrated a small cookbook called "Haitian recipes". She also spent time in Puerto Rico and spent a few months in 1962 on the island of Kauai. By the late sixties she was living in San Francisco. From 1979 to 1985 she lived in Lexington, Kentucky where she exhibited her work and attended the University of Kentucky as a Donovan Scholar, a program that allowed senior citizens to attend classes free. She attended services at the Universalist Unitarian church during that period. Evidently she was married for a short time and had a daughter who lived in the San Francisco area. Robel passed away on March 10, 1995 in San Francisco.

If anyone can add to the Robel Paris story I would appreciate receiving an email. Thanks.