Michèle Manuel (Haitian, b.1935)

Michèle Manuel was born in 1935 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Manuel began drawing in Haiti, then went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for courses at the Academy of Drawings and Painting in 1953. The following year she studied at the University of Rochester. From 1970 to 1978, she exhibited in Haiti, the United States, and the Dominican Republic. A jury of eminent figures in Haitian art chose one of her paintings, The Market, to be reproduced as a postage stamp in 1981. Manuel was the prime mover behind the restoration of the most typical “gingerbread” house in Port-au-Prince, now the Defly Museum. Its profits go to the Haitian Association for Handicapped Children. She is a member of the group Women Painters. (La Peinture Haitienne/Haitian Arts by Marie-José Nadal & Gérald Bloncourt, pp. 154) “Manuel’s draftsmanship and style without shading inject a rhythm into all her work” states Gérald Alexis, in his book titled Peintres Haitiens.” Get the book here!