Hector Hyppolite

Who was Hector Hyppolite?

Hector Hyppolite was a Haitian painter. Born in Saint-Marc, Hyppolite was a third generation Vodou priest, or houngan. He also made shoes and painted houses before taking up fine art painting, which he did untrained. Hyppolite spent five years outside of Haiti from 1915-1920. Although he later claimed those years had been spent in Africa, scholars regard that as more likely an instance of promotional myth-making than factual.

Hyppolite's talent as an artist was noticed by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin, who brought him to Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince in 1946. There Hyppolite worked in the studio run by Dewitt Peters, a watercolorist and schoolteacher from the United States who had come to Haiti to teach the English language as part of the Good Neighbor Policy. In 1944 Peters opened an art center in the capital that provided free materials. Before arriving at the Centre d'Art Hyppolite had painted upon cardboard using chicken feathers and sold to visiting United States Marines because he owned no brushes. Peters had first noticed Hyppolite's work in 1943 on the exterior doors of a bar in Montrouis, which Hyppolite had painted with flower and bird designs. Flowers could represent attributes of deities in Vodou symbolism, and although the doors had not been explicitly religious Hyppolite recognized interest in Vodou among art buyers and incorporated Vodou themes into his work during his time at Peters's studio.