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L�ontis (also spelled L�ontus), a first�generation artist, did a fine Annunciation
in the
Episcopal Cathedral. He was known especially for his
sensitive and detailed renderings of birds. He was not the first Haitian
with such an interest: John James (n�e Jean�Jacques) Audubon, the
great American nautralist and orinthologist, was born in Ha�ti. I commissioned this work from the artist, an exceedingly nice man, in mid�1985 � but it did not come to me easily. Early in 1986 the broker who'd steered me to L�ontis called to say the artist was in hospital and penniless. Could I send money for his medical bills? I did � I sent the other half of what I'd agreed to pay for the painting. (I have no idea if the money actually went to the hospital.) A short while later the broker called again. L�ontis had died. I should come to Ha�ti immediately to get my painting. (This was the same 'broker' who nearly caused me to lose my Rigaud Benoit.) When I arrived the artist's widow offered me a work that was interesting � and the same size as the one I'd commissioned � but not 'my' Annunication. Georges Nader, a Port�au�Prince gallery owner, had seized that work to satisfy a debt, she said, even though she'd told him that the work had been commissioned and paid for. I went to the gallery. Mr Nader agreed to exchange the two paintings only if I would (1) give him half again as much as I had already paid L�ontis for the work and also (2) buy one or more additional works. I wanted 'my' painting; I agreed; I paid. But I never returned to his gallery. |
