Prosper Pierre-Louis was born in Bainet, in the south of Haiti, on October 12, 1947. At age 16 he moved to Port-au-Prince, where he apprenticed as a barber for a time before working as a waiter at the home of Maude Robard, who would in 1973, with the Haitian artist Tiga, organize a community of singers, dancers, craftspeople, actors, and painters into a movement that was named Saint Soleil. Prosper followed his friend Maude to the community at Soisson-la-Montagne and eventually became the most prominent painter in the group.

The Saint Soleil movement gained international recognition in 1975 when the French cultural icon André Malraux visited the community. It is said that Malraux was seated in a chair on a grassy knoll while the art...