Petion Savain, born February 15, 1906, was a lawyer who taught tinsmithing at a vocational school and dabbled in photography.  He studied drawing in school, and became enthusiastic about painting watching the American, William Edouard Scott, who painted Haitian scenes in 1930.  

 

Savain taught himself to paint, receiving encouragement from his intellectual friends and from the sale of his paintings and the winning of the IBM competition of 1939.  He studied at the Art Students Leaugue and the New School for Social Research in New York from 1940 to 1943.  Returning to Haiti, he continued his career as a painter.  Savain was also a respected teacher of art.

 

Christensen, Eleanor.  The Art of Haiti.  New Jersey:  A.S. Barnes, 1975