Alexandre Grégoire (August 29, 1922 – July 28, 2001) was a

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

an painter who typically depicted scenes of Vodou, daily life, and historical events in the naïve style. Born in

Jacmel Jacmel (; ) is a commune in southern Haiti founded by the Spanish in 1504 and repopulated by the French in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince across the Tiburon Peninsula, and ...

, Grégoire was educated from 1930 to 1937 by the Christian Teaching Brothers, and then studied cabinet making at the Jacmel vocational school for two years. In 1939 he joined the army and played the

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

in the army band. He stayed in the army until the 1950s; during the presidency of

Paul Magloire Paul Eugène Magloire (; July 19, 1907 – July 12, 2001), nicknamed Kanson Fè (Iron Pants), was the Haitian president from 1950 to 1956. Early life Paul Eugène Magloire ne Paul Vincent Magloire, 30th president of Haiti and 33rd head of state ...

he left the military and joined the band at the

National Palace Buildings called National Palace include: *National Palace (Dominican Republic), in Santo Domingo * National Palace (El Salvador), in San Salvador * National Palace (Ethiopia), in Addis Ababa; also known as the Jubilee Palace * National Palace (Guat ...

. In 1968, with the encouragement of his friends Préfete Duffaut and Pierre-Joseph Valcin and the help of the Centre d'Art in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

, Grégoire began painting. Paintings by Alexandre Grégoire have been sold by the Friends of HAS Haiti to raise funds for the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, located in Deschapelles.

External links

Paintings by Alexandre Grégoire at Friends of Hopital Albert Schweitzer

References

* * 1922 births 2001 deaths Haitian artists People from Jacmel 20th-century Haitian painters 20th-century Haitian male artists Haitian male painters Haitian military personnel {{Haiti-painter-stub