Michèle Manuel was born in 1935 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Manuel began drawing in Haiti and then went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1953 for courses at the Academy of Drawing and Painting. The following year, she studied at the University of Rochester. From 1970 to 1978, she exhibited in Haiti, the United States, and the Dominican Republic. A jury of eminent figures in Haitian art selected one of her paintings, "The Market," to be reproduced as a postage stamp in 1981. Manuel was the prime mover behind restoring the most typical “gingerbread” house in Port-au-Prince, now the Defly Museum. Its profits go to the Haitian Association for Children with Handicaps. She is a member of the Women Painters group. (Source: La Peinture Haitienne/Haitian Arts by Marie-José Nadal & Gérald Bloncourt, pp. 154) “Manuel’s draftsmanship and style without shading inject a rhythm into all her work,” states Gérald Alexis, in his book titled Peintres Haitiens.”