Toussaint Auguste

Artist from Haiti ( 1925 - )

  • Toussaint Auguste, born in Leogane in 1925, is said to have been active in the Episcopal Diocese as a lay reader and a teacher before becoming a painter in the late 1940s. He was among the early painters working at the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince. Considered one of the First Generation Masters, examples of his work can be found in many museums--including the permanent collections of the Musee d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre in Port-au-Prince and the Milwaukee Museum of Art.

  • Toussaint Auguste was represented in the Cathedral of Sainte Trinite in Port-au-Prince with the murals Flight into Egypt and The Temptation of Adam and Eve. (The Cathedral was destroyed in the earthquake of 10 January 2010.) In 1966, his Nativity was featured on a UNICEF Christmas card. He moved to the United States in 1967, first settling in Brooklyn, New York, and then in Queens, New York in 1972.

[Biographic notes compiled by Patrick Jamieson.]

  • The Lost Lamb by Toussaint Auguste
    • The Lost Lamb by Toussaint Auguste
    • The Lost Lamb by Toussaint Auguste
    • The Lost Lamb by Toussaint Auguste
    • The Lost Lamb by Toussaint Auguste

    The Lost Lamb by Toussaint Auguste Dated 8/55 [August 1955]

    20 in x 24 in, Oil on Masonite, Framed

    $2,250 - To inquire about this piece, please email Patrick Jamieson

    • I have seen several versions of this scene--a Haitian shepherd watching over his flock--that the artist created around the same time in 1955. In this one, the hills in the background, the grass in the foreground, the trees to the left and right, and the sheep surrounding the shepherd are all arranged symmetrically. This leads me to wonder why the shepherd's pant legs are rolled up to different heights.

      Condition: Excellent in a custom frame.

      The Lost Lamb was one of 25 Haitian paintings from this collection that were exhibited in the show Life in Bold Colors at Sonoma State University, Sonoma, California in 2007.

Publications:

  • [na]. The Naive Tradition: Haiti. Milwaukee Art Center, 1974.

  • Demme, Jonathan. Island on Fire. Kaliko Press, 1997.

  • Material Culture. Direct From The Eye: The Jonathan Demme Collection of Self-Taught Art. Philadelphia, 2014.

  • Rodman, Selden. Renaissance in Haiti. 1948.

    -. The Miracle of Haitian Art. New York, 1974.

    -. Where Art is Joy. New York, 1988.

  • Stebich, Ute. A Haitian Celebration. Milwaukee Art Museum, 1992.

Selected Toussaint Auguste links:

Page by Patrick Jamieson