Birth of Philome Obin, master painter of Cap-Haitien

Philome Obin was born at Limbe on 20 July 1892. He made his first painting in 1908, at sixteen, and painted for seventy-five years. The Centre d’Art showed his work in 1945 and he became a full-time painter; his canvases are geometric, exact, and they record Haitian history, Charlemagne Peralte crucified, the ceremonies, the streets of the Cap. His studio at Cap-Haitien became a school for his family and a dozen other painters. In 1950 he joined Castera Bazile, Prefete Duffaut, Rigaud Benoit and Wilson Bigaud in decorating the Episcopal cathedral of Sainte-Trinite in Port-au-Prince; the earthquake of January 2010 destroyed most of those murals. He died at Cap-Haitien on 6 August 1986.